Bond Reviews

One of my biggest dislikes in "series" written by different authors is the fact that excellent writers have to write within the confines of a set storyline and often are given characters with "histories" that don't fit well with the writer's normal writing style. Such is the case with The Connelleys series. Some of the books have been very good and some have been so-so as the author for that particular book was working with a storyline/history, etc. that they didn't create and are not comfortable writing in and therefore the stories come off as missing something. This is definitely the case with this book.

I normally very much enjoy Cindy Gerard's books. Her heroes are normally excellent with complimentary heroines. Unfortunately with this book, while the hero is indeed a very good one, the heroine is one of the weakest and most spineless I've seen in some time.

The book does move the plot along in The Connelleys storyline but does not leave you with a good impression of the heroine until the end. If you are reading the series, get it, otherwise, if you are looking for Ms. Gerard's normally excellent stories, look elsewhere.

A devastating train wreck killed all passengers, leaving the Connellys to believe that Michael was dead. No one knew that although he had book passage on the train, Michael lay severely injured elsewhere as the result of vicious mugging. For two years Michael had no memory of the life he left behind in America, and the woman who had asked him for a divorce. Then he saw the photograph of is wife engaged to another man and carrying his son.

With Michael's reported death, Tara Connelly Paige lost her spunk. Compliancy replaced zeal, surface calm replaced passion. Indeed, the only thing that still brings sparkle to her days is the son conceived on the eve of his father's departure. Then suddenly, Michael reappears, and Tara is terrified of allowing the tumultuous emotions of the past to sweep her away for fear of being destroyed...again.

THE SECRET BABY BOND, book nine of the continuity Dynasties: The Connellys. Author Cindy Gerard successfully pens a novel that functions as well as a standalone as it does within the scope of the series. Michael's disappearance and subsequent reappearance is both convincing and poignant. Tara's emotional shutdown seems equally appropriate in light of her feelings of guilt, love, and grief. Her fear of reawakening old passions threatens to paralyze her, forcing her to reject second chances despite her desires. Filled with rich emotional nuance, complicated family relationships, and complexities of the heart, THE SECRET BABY BOND comes very highly recommended.

While this book purports to be an unbiased account of the foster care system and its impact on African-American children, it fails miserably. The author is biased against the system from the very beginning, and presents only stories that back her view of the system. There are definitely issues with the foster care system including: overworked case managers, lack of funds, inability to assist children in an appropriate fashion 100% of the time. Certainly there is a racial issue since the majority of children in foster care and up for adoption are minorities, but is this because of the foster care system itself or are we missing a major piece in the puzzle? It is this missing piece that is missing from Ms. Roberts' book.

I read Ms. Roberts book and believe that she is on target to the destruction of the Black family. The number of African American children in foster care is not a new theory. In fact, Black children have been in the foster care system since slavery. Slavery in itself was a form of foster care. The continued systematic destruction of the black family is caused by poverty, poor education and MISeducation, as well as, a host of factors created by the racism and classification of "minority" for black people. It is very easy to place fault on poor parents but the system pays more money to pull families apart than to help form the bonds of the bloodline.

In the state of Missouri, for example, black children make up only 14% of the total population of children in the state. Nonetheless, 44% of all children in the foster care system are black. A highly disproportionate number. One state, but multiply that by all states and the math speaks for itself.

I highly recommend this book.

Absolutely completely confusing text. Poorly written, difficult to understand and extremely wordy. Author takes a moderately complex subject and creates a monster of confusion. The absence of a good bond graph text probably holds back the proliferation of this modeling technique. Amazed the authors didn't attempt to simplify or condense their work after three text revisions.

I have been using the 2nd edition which was the best book within modelling and simulation of "mechatronic" systems before the 3rd edition came. The price is lower than for the 2nd ed. and that one was also worth it! This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone who needs to perform modeling and simulation of mechanic, hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical systems. The book covers the basic modeling procedure, leads you through the formulation of equations, and show you simulation examples. The book is both for the beginner and for advanced engineering. Recommended!

I was so excited to find this book. I'd been looking for some time as I wanted to read Gabe's story. I was very disappointed. The Gabe of this book didn't seem to bear any resemblence to the strong, wonderful Gabe in the previous books of the Randall family series.

After I read the book, I tried to analyze my feelings about it since I had so enjoyed the stories of the 4 brothers plus some of their children.

IMHO, there was too much going on in this book. Gabe was a total, mean, clueless [person]. Nick just turned over his life on a dime. Jenn went from spoiled and petulant to helpful and thoughtful the minute she felt her babies move. I don't think so! And I could never get a handle on Sarah, at all. She had no personality.

The writing is wooden and the characters interaction is extremely stilted. I never got the feeling that love was involved in any of it. I never got that nice little "zing" that a good romance will give me when I'm truly drawn into the story and care about the people. I didn't give a hoot about any of these folks. The book is not a keeper for me. I did want to read "Cowboy Come Home" but, now, I'm not so sure. Not if it's like this one.

I just hate to see a good author turn out something like this when I know she can do better. It just seemed like she was forced to write it and resented every word.

When Nicholas McMillan learns that he has an identical twin brother--Gabe Randall--he heads to Rawhide, Wyoming to claim the family he lost. He doesn't know quite what to expect, but he certainly doesn't expect to be slapped in the face by the beautiful Sarah Waggoner. Gabe is used to wealth, to the big city, and to sophisticated women. Somehow, though, Rawhide, with its swarms of Randalls, his brother, and especially Sarah, starts to appeal more and more. If only he could get Sarah to see things his way.

Gabe Randall has finally settled down after years on the rodeo circuit. His ranch is just taking off and he had counted on settling down with Jennifer Waggoner--the only woman he's ever loved. Yet now that he finally has something to offer her, Jennifer tells him that she has left him for another. When Jennifer turns up pregnant, Gabe is willing to do the honorable thing--but he won't trust his heart to Jennifer ever again.

Author Judy Christenberry delivers another emotion-packed Randall family tale. Fans of the series will be overjoyed to see the original Randall brides (and grooms) hard at work at what they love best--matchmaking and family building. With their help, Gabe and Nick may have a chance at winning the love of the beautiful sisters they cherish.

Christenberry's female characters, Jennifer and Sarah, both have some growing to do as well and Christenberry does a fine job allowing them to become strong and independent women who are able to stand on their own feet--as all Randall women do.

UNBREAKABLE BONDS is Christenberry's first longer novel. The format allows for twice the romance and twice the Randall matchmaking and macho men.

I was highly disappointed that I spent (price)plus (...)shipping on this book. It isn't even a book. It is more like a pamphlet with a few extra pages. And, no folks, the reason I didn't like the book is not because my site isn't listed in it... The reason is, many of the links are just plain awful. They claim to be the "best resource for Bond" or some even have the nerve to say "everything you ever wanted to know about James Bond." Well, when I went to these pages, I was dismayed to see that there is one page with a really bad generic image of the five official actors in the series, which is constantly re-used a billion times on every Bond site on the web. The book does have some good points like a summary under many of the links. However, most of these summaries don't match the link, and there were plenty of Bond sites that didn't make their way into the book for any number of reasons. Also, if you read the previous review about this book and how great it is, keep in mind, that review was written last November. By now, many of the links are dead and don't look like they will ever be fixed. Take my word for it, go over to Kim Last's 007 site for links. You won't be disappointed. With this book, however, you might be.

This is definitely the best guide to James Bond on the web. Now u might say hey I could just look this stuff up on yahoo or some other search engine if I wanted. No, not at all! This book contains many unlisted and secret site and has them all compiled neatly in a conformed order of interest from bond gadgets, to the bond girls and more! Best of all there are NO NOT A SINGLE broken link in the book! If your at all interested in James Bond and have the internet get this book

This classic of basic definitions has a new edition that came out in 1999. Although I have not yet read that one, I do suggest that you skip this one.

The book is filled with discussions of how investors value stocks that few serious investors would recognize. There is almost nothing about investing outside the United States. NASDAQ gets almost no mention. The information about discount brokers is wrong. The terminology for describing many types of stocks was never correct, as best as I can recall.

The facts that are correct relate mostly to trivia, like what the number on a stock certificate means. It could help you answer a question on Do You Want To Be a Millionaire? but has little other practical use. Many of these facts (such as how to read the stock tables) can be garnered by simply reading the footnotes in The Wall Street Journal or Barron's.

This book is a good example of the communication stall. We tend to believe everything that we read from what should be reliable sources, even when the information is often faulty.

Donald Mitchell....

This book is excellent for people who are new to investing and managing their own money. It is colorful, easy to read, gives great real-life examples and provides a great index to the book can be used as a referrence manual. The book can be read rather quickly to give someone a feel for understnading stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures and money in general. It's a must read prior to investing money.

I'm a huge fan of Larry Bond -- Red Pheonix is one of the best war/techno-thriller books I've ever read, and I really enjoyed Vortex and Caldron, too. But Day of Wrath left me wanting more -- frankly, I find the main love interest a little trite in this story, and the main plot line is more derivative than I've come to expect from Larry Bond. Still, I found it an entertaining read, though compared to other recent works in this genre (Clancy's new Rainbow Six, for example), I'd have to give it a low passing grade. I will buy Bond's next book, though, and hope for a more original effort next time.

Bond delivers a story that could be true to today's world. Prince Ibrahim of Saudi Arabia, a millionaire, is the guy behind the terrorism across the world, financially supporting various factions. He also owns a powerful corporation, known as Caraco, and is very influential with the current administration in the White House.

The story revolves around Thorn and Gray, the Army Colonel, and FBI agent who were featured in Bond's prior novel, Enemy Within.
A Russian cargo jet crashes in northern Russia with U.S. officials onboard. Gray and Thorn both meet at the scene, and that's when their lives get interesting. Trailing clues to why the plane crashed with the help of a Russian MVD officer, Thorn and Gray pursue Germans into parts of northern Russia, into Norway and Germany. They get into trouble with Russian locals when the MVD officer is killed in an ambush.

They have a hunch that, jet engines are being used to smuggle nuclear weapons to the U.S. Disobeying orders from their government, Thorn and Gray pursue the leads to the U.S. and get help from General Farrell. With the German and Arabic terrorists after them as well as their own government, Thorn and Gray must elude them and get to the heart of the problem, before Ibrahim can unleash 20 150 Megaton nuclear bombs on the U.S.

A well-paced actioner featuring the main characters from THE ENEMY WITHIN, Col Peter Thorn and the FBI's Helen Gray. This time a plane carrying UN weapons inspectors crashes in Russia, and investigations lead to the trail of blackmarket tactical nuclear warheads for sale . . . and what interest does a Saudi prince have in these weapons? The outcome may be predictable and the characters may seem like they have leapt out from a LETHAL WEAPON movie, but the strengths of this book are the story, the research behind the weapons themselves and how they could be transported into the US and a good, fast-pacing and simple prose. The action scenes are undeniably entertaining, and the bit that made me laugh was the bad guy's last word before being shot . . . Noooooooo! That is sooo Hollywood! In fact, why hasn't this(or any other of Larry Bond's novels, for that matter) been made into a movie yet?

Ron Insana's The Message of the Markets is an interesting read of financial market history. His thesis is that movements in the financial markets can foretell future events, but he ignores all those times the markets reacted irrationally. This book cannot make you a better investor, but it is one person's interesting perspective of history.

Those other reviewers (as well as CNBC, Amazon and financial experts) are right. SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS by Nancy Lloyd (a Federal Reserve Board economist who I see frequently on CNBC and read in the New York Times Sunday Business) and this book by Ron Insana are all I needed to finally make sense of my personal finances and begin making good investment decisions for my personal portfolio as well as my 401(k) plan.

By using the outstanding, original and easy-to-follow advice in these two books my net worth has actually risen into the high six (6) figures!!! Not bad while the market is stagnating or dropping.

My friends, whose portfolios have been plunging in value, are in awe of my newfound financial savvy and skyrocketing bottom line.

And I owe it all to the information I picked up in these two incredible books. Ron and Nancy should patent this advice. It beats anything I've read elsewhere.

I'm a big fan of Ron Insana and his show Business Center. After reading this insightful and inspirational book about what's really going on in the markets, my admiration for him has grown even more. I may not be a market insider but after reading this book I have certainly increased my knowledge about the markets and improved my chances of leading a wealthier life.

I love her voice and sytle, however this psysobable is intolerable. I had to stop reading and listen to her sing just to regain my sanity. Sorry to say but stay away far far away

This is a fact & fiction portrait of one of the great operatic artists. Maria Callas as daughter, sister, wife, lover, thwarted mother & prima donna assoluta.

Do take out one of Maria Callas' CDs as you read this author's fictional autobiography of this darling of the rarified reaches of haute couture, drama & music.

Dr. Bond comes by her ability to see inside another person's mind, honestly. She spent 40 years doing just that as a Freudian analyst in the Mother of All Cities, New York!

A golden voice is no guarantee of a golden life, & if you have no idea who Maria Callas was, then this novel, written in the first person, will go a long way to re-creating this woman with a divine voice who had a leaden private life. She was, when all is read & done, a child of her era & a woman of her time.

Did I like THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARIA CALLAS: A novel? Not really, then I'm not a huge opera fan nor a Maria Callas aficionado. Do I admire Dr. Bond's effort? Absolutely! Is it a work of art? You betcha!

Ultimately, we can never know what goes on in another's mind, but psychologist and author Bond does a lyrical job of imagining the inner workings of one of the best singers in history. She's not a musician reviewing Callas' musical life, but a therapist imagining her inner life - and it's a good read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I love the Sword of Truth series... as always, I end up craving for more! Once I got started, I can't bring myself to put it down. I do feel that a lot of the interesting stuff got crammed into the last few chapters and that too much of the story centered on Jennsen. Other than that, I think this book is an excellent addition to the series.

i don't know what the other reviewers are talking about, but this book directly addresses the criticism of the previous books while introducing a breath of fresh air to the series.
1) it provides a new iteration to the generic plotline of the series, i.e., richard and kahland get separated, defeat the enemy and reunite.
2) it puts the whole d'haran/old world in a new perspective
3) you get a better sense of what is going on in the different worlds, the daily struggles and the ways of life
4) there is suspense. you know something is wrong but you don't know what.
5) new characters, new tensions, new conflicts.

Terry, this book is great! not the best (the second and third were) but definitely worth a read and worth the time.

If you've read the rest of the Sword of Truth series, this book might be a let down, that is, if you don't like new characters and if you aren't into seeing other points of view. If you're bland and boring and enjoy the same hum-drum tale all the way through a series, then this exciting book isn't for you. However, if you're a true lover of books, as I believe myself to be, you'll appreciate the interesting change of pace and the wonderful detail put into a side character that will come into the main plot. Excellent work.