Having read Orphan Train, I was expecting another excellent book. I was extremely disappointed. Christina Baker Kline has given us a whiny, slow moving psychological drama and mystery. The mystery part is questionable. I figured it out early on.

I started reading the E book and then transitioned to the audio book which allowed me to finish more quickly. The plot was complex and interesting and definitely kept me focused. The story lines weave around a young woman who returns home feeling that she emanates failure. She ends up getting back in touch with her high school classmates and as a reporter she solves a cold mystery.

Was it me or was it the book? I haven't disliked a book this much in...well, a long time. And I, along with my book club, had enjoyed Kline's "Orphan Train" a great deal. I truly had to force myself through the first approximately 100 pages. Sooooo boring. Flat. Tedious. Once I got beyond that and the protagonist arrived back home in Bangor among family and members of her high school class celebrating their 10th anniversary, things picked up. I decided that the first third of the book was writte...

The book was long and mostly filled with the whining of the main character as all her friends and family were telling her to get a life and move on and stop being so depressing. It really didn't touch on the mystery portion until around halfway through and didn't pick up until the end, really. It also wasn't that big of a mystery for me. Figuring out who was responsible for the disappearance of Jennifer was a little too easy. I was just along for the ride while the main character tried to put ev...

I really enjoyed The Orphan Train by this author. And I expected to be drawn in in a similar fashion with this novel. However, the first half of the book the main character is so self-involved, so caught up in her failed marriage, poor relationship with her mother, and the disappearance of her "best" friend, that that is all she thinks about. Well, that was about 50 pages too much about that. Along about the last third of the book, the pace picks up and I finally got caught up in some action. Fo...

I really enjoyed this book. I'm always pleased when I enjoy multiple books from the same author (Orphan Train was my first of hers) and I'll definitely check out the rest!

This is the second of Christina Baker Kline's novels, published in the late 90's. She is my author of the year, so I have enjoyed reading her older works. The book about a young journalist coming home after ten years. She is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend on the night of her graduation, and this unsolved mystery had shaped her life. She comes home after a divorce, to face her ten year high school reunion. She needs to both solve the mystery and find herself. I thought it was wel...

This book moves very slow and the main character, Kathryn, is basically a loser with no drive or ambition. There was nothing about her I could relate too in any way. Slow book, the mystery is enough to keep you intrigued but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea.

This is a very different type of novel than the other two that I had read by this author. ORPHAN TRAIN and A PIECE OF THE WORLD were excellent and very thoughtful historical novels, while this one is about a group of friends who lost one of their group on the night of their high school graduation. Jennifer walked away from their small party and was never found again. Now ten years later, Katherine, her best friend returns to Bangor, ME and is asked to write a newspaper story about the impact of

I love Christina Baker Kline's books. I believe with reading this one, I have read all her fiction to date! Fabulous story teller. Lovely prose!

My first book of the new year! I read "Sweet Water" and "The Way Life Should Be" by this author back in 2009 and I gave both books 4 star ratings. As I read back over my reviews of these two books, I find it difficult to remember "Sweet Water" with any detail, but her other book "The Way Life Should Be" I remember really enjoying and wonder now why I didn't give it 5 stars. I keep hearing great things about her most recent book "Orphan Train" seeing 5 star ratings from friends and family. After

Review originally posted: Traveling With TThis book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.Desire LinesKathryn Campbell is returning to her hometown of Bangor, Maine. After her divorce, she’s drifting- Kathryn is unsure about what she should do next. With her high school reunion fast-approaching, Kathryn is nervous about going- and in fact, doesn’t want to attend. There are several reasons she does not want to attend- her divorce, her career plans, not keeping in contact with her

Oh man, this one was a struggle. Who wants to revisit high school? Or even worse, revisit the years in which you lost your best friend? Rather than feeling tense this story felt all kind of AWKWARD. I had such a hard time maintaining interest in wishy-washy characters, arguments about high school drama long-past, and a totally predictable missing girl mystery. Even though most of us didn't have a friend tragically disappear in our senior year, most of us can still look back at high school and re...

Review Excerpt:I liked the characters, especially Kathryn (although at times I wanted to shake her), and her high school friend and currently developing romantic interest Jack. The family dynamics between Kathryn, her divorced parents, grandmother, and dad's second wife seemed realistic. I related to the high school in the 80's flashbacks--the music, the times, and the author's description of the reunion reminded me of my own 10-year. "Age and experience are recorded differently on each face--so...

I liked the story and didn't mind the ending like others have. What I did mind were the 2 graphic sex scenes that were so unnecessary. Be aware that they are in the book and plenty of foul language. If I'd known I probably wouldn't have read it, but honestly by the time it was there I really wanted to know the resolution so I did some fast forwarding and finished.

Let's just get this out of the way up front: was this book as good as Orphan Train? No. No it wasn't. To be honest thought, Orphan Train was so great for me that I almost wish I had read her other books before Orphan Train so I'd feel like she was progressively getting better and better. With that said, it doesn't mean this isn't a good book. It's good in a chick lit kind of way. I think the hardest part for me was how slow it was. This wasn't a book that grabbed you because things were just hap...

Less than mediocre at best. I chose this book to explore more works by the Author of Orphan Train. From the synopsis I expected a suspense and thriller. Instead it was a weak story about a high school reunion at best. I struggled to finish and kept loosing interest till the end. I'm glad that Ms Kline found her voice in Orphan Train and hope she continues to grow. Then we can all put this novel behind us.

The novel is about a woman in search of finding herself but wrapped up in the plot of her best friend from high school that just went missing. It has an element of the chick-lit to it but also a touch of the mystery genre. An easy but engrossing read for me. This is the second book I have really enjoyed from this author.I enjoyed it so much that as I was nearing the end reading on the subway, the train actually made it all the way to my stop in mid-town Manhattan and then started leave to go bac...

It is hard to believe that the author who wrote Orphan Train also wrote this tedious novel about a woman who just cannot get over herself.Katherine' best friend disappeared the night of their high school graduation. Ten years later, Katherine is divorced and moving back to her hometown, Bangor, ME, without a job, without a car, without much of anything. She is annoying and miserable. In fact, most of the characters are just impossible to deal with - one dimensional and boring. Even after ten yea...

Contrary to what the title suggests, this book is not about desire as it relates to human wants. Rather, the title comes from the activity called orienteering, where participants use a map and a compass to navigate from one point to another in unfamiliar territory. According to one of the characters in the book who heads a local chapter of people who engage in orienteering, if one becomes lost in the woods, they can find their way out by following "desire lines," which are faint paths through th...