This would be a great Lifetime movie or a made-for-tv movie or something like that. The rich, have-everything Redmans complete with the perfect daughter, the forgotten daughter are the target of Louis Ryan, the man bent on revenge. Ryan's scope is wide and involves loads of interesting (and not-so interesting) characters including (of course!) the mob! There was probably one-too-many characters - too many business people and I wish there was more of backstory to Celina (the perfect daughter) and Eric (why was their breakup so bad? Why did he still want her and why was she so done with him? What did he do?), and also some more interaction between Celina and Leana (the not-so-perfect daughter -- there was a lot of unspoken feelings there). It fell short of being great because there was too much going on and at times it got a little confusing (especially the plane scene with Jack and Diana). Plus all of a sudden there's Anne's diary! Where did that come from? Isn't that something Louis Ryan should have read all those years ago? What possessed him to finally read it now? And the killer? Really? Because that was completely likely. Couldn't it have been someone that wasn't mentioned less than 10 times the whole book?I wish the end didn't skip over 6 months. Plus, after focusing so much on how Leana felt like the black sheep, whatever happened to her relationship with George? The end was a little too tidy for a book that had a billion characters in it. If an author is going to raise questions (and point fingers) regarding relationships, he should then answer the questions instead of leaving readers scratching their heads. However, a book within a book -- that was kind of cool. c2010. So this book started off badly for me with the heroine staring up at 79 stories of building - then a bomb goes off - and "the men on the roof were hurt." then she "hurried into the lobby, shot past the waterfall and stepped into her father's private elevator./ The building was too tall. The elevator was too slow. No matter how quickly she raced to the top, it wasn't fast enough". With this give away that the author had almost certainly never been near a real life urban bomb explosion, the story was already on a downward spiral for me. I did not have any feelings toward the characters, none for the outcome and I think the editor should have slashed more words than he/she did. I have to humbly admit that this book defeated me and it was one of those awful awful DNF - but life is really too short for this. In having a look at the "rave reviews" - who is Chris Truscott who said "Christopher Smith delivers an amazing story that's worth the advance billing. ...His writing is smooth, his observations are sharp and the plot he built is downright stunning." Please forgive me if I am wrong - but this seems to be another self published writer under Smashwords. Open to correction of course but I do think that this is a bit misleading of Amazon! Also a PM Richter had some stunning words of praise and I have not heard of that author (?) either. Again, this seeming lack of integrity with marketing just annoys the Dickens out of me!!!!Of course every one is entitled to their view point but when it is put out there purporting to be a opinion that matters....well, say no more. End of rant.
What do You think about Fifth Avenue (2010)?
I enjoyed this. A little predictable, but good. A fun, easy read.
—helloo
Plodding and predictable, with huge plot holes.
—gglazzy
Reminded me of the popular novels of the 1970s
—Yre24
