What do You think about Dreadful Sorry (2004)?
This is literally the 6th time I have read this book!!!!It's a great book about a girl who starts remembering her past live and you start to see the links between both her lives. As the book pulls you in you start to connect all these pieces together and realize that there is a reason she has started to remember and it is not just for love.This book takes place in a quaint little town on the water in main and you fall in love with it wishing you could visit and meet the other characters for real. It is a good love story not only between soul mates but between family.It shows how ties and bonds that are formed can last through a person's life. It also shows how strongly family can influence you life in good and bad ways. Please if you pick up any of Kathryn Reiss' books please read this one. It is one of my favorites from her. I have also read her book "Time windows" just as many times as I have read this one and highly recommend it as well. Also "Paperquake" I have read at least twice now as well which is another fabulous book by her.
—Vanessa
I normally don't like reading older YA books (I stick to older middle grade generally) but I didn't realize this was YA until I started. I've been wanting to read Kathryn Reiss's Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost Story & Time Windows, but I haven't come across them yet. I came across a copy of Dreadful Sorry, and recognizing the author, I decided to try it. It's not bad.I don't have a lot to say about this book. If you want a plot description, other reviews have written that up, so I won't bother. Like I said, this book isn't too bad. I'd prefer to read a more modern YA, to be honest, but this wasn't too dreadfully dated. There are obviously no cell phones, which will date any book, but there weren't any awful pop culture references. It is slightly jarring, however, to have characters talk about people who were living in the 1910s and just assume they're still alive - that's when you realize this book is over 20 years old.This book is YA, but it reads more like an older MG. I don't think anyone over the age of 14 will like this book much, especially considering the more modern paranormal YAs out there. There's nothing really inappropriate in this book, save for a brief mention of alcohol (don't worry, adults were there!) and some serious events, such as death (however, all the deaths happened about a century ago). I'm giving this book 3 stars. It was solid, for what it was, but I don't think I'd read it again.
—Holly
Here is another annoyance. In pretty much all the YA mystery/thriller books I've read lately, there is a super annoying mother. And for some reason it's always the mother. The father either completely backs up the mother or else the father is the "understanding" parent but for some reason can't overthrow the mother's wishes.In every one of these books, the mother is a cold, SUPER practical person who reacts violently to their child's experiences, saying that their child is either lying or imagining things, and REFUSES to even listen further, even going so far as to yelling at the child and/or punishing them.In this book the main character is deathly afraid of water, and rather than being understanding, the mother is dismissive and cruel. When the main character almost drowns, the mother is even more heartless, saying that she needs to face her fear and tells her she can't do anything else until she learns to swim. WTF? The mothers in these books are so completely unrealistic. They are only in the story to move the plot along, to set up roadblocks for the main character from investigating whatever it is they are trying to find out. It's really really annoying, and it's gotten old. I don't know any real life mother who is like this.This book was pretty bad. I figured out what happened halfway through the book and then basically skimmed through the rest to confirm my guess. Other than the horrible mother, there is once again the unrealistically sensitive yet hunky high school boy who helps the main character solve her mystery. Actually every character was totally stereotypical. This is a must-skip book.
—Anita
