Fortune's Rocks (2001) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“What a fantastic story! Not at all what I thought it would be. Just fantastic all around.”

• Rated 3 stars

“A family saga about first love, betrayal and ultimately doing the right thing.”

• Rated 5 stars

“ Let me first go ahead and apologize for the length of this review. I am absolutely amazed by Anita Shreve....I fell in love with Shreve's writing after reading The Weight of Water. What I love most about Anita Shreve's books is that they are all so compellingly different. You know her writing. And although most of her books are love stories of some sort they are so dramatically different each and every one. If you didn't know you were reading a book by her every time you might be able to convince yourself that each one was written by a different person the stories are so different from one another.

Each of her books is my favorite at the time of reading one. I had a hard time getting into this book the first few times I tried reading it. I read the first few pages and then decided to read something else several times.

Then this past year I decided to pick it up again and I couldn't put it down. For me it's always about what I'm in the mood for whether or not I'll be able to get into a book.

And apparently I was in the right mood. It's a thick book and I read it fast I could not read it fast enough it was sooooo good.

I was sooooo moved by the time I got to the end of the book that I ACTUALLY thought to myself I have to see if I can get ahold of Anita Shreve somehow!

And I did.

I sent her an email. And she emailed me back. I gushed over her books but this one in particular exclaiming that I was so moved I just had to tell her and that I had not yet read the ending and I hoped that I would like it.

She replied kindly and said she hoped that I would like the ending.

Of course after I read the last word on the last page I emailed her back and told her how much I love the ending and how satisfying it was.

If you are a person who likes minimal words then Anita Shreve is not for you. Ever. Shreve is very detailed. As much as I love to read a hundred or two hundred page novella sometimes with it quickly getting to the point. I relish Shreve's writing. So much so that I anticipate having to keep a pencil and pad of paper for writing down words I'll have to look up.

I feel smarter after having read one of Anita Shreve's novels. I love her for not "dumbing down" her vocabulary just to make it an easy read. I love that she sprinkles her novels with truth and history at times.

Like in the book Sea Glass. After reading that I wanted to do research of my own on the Great Depression and what people went through and how they survived.

I "wanted" to. I didn't say I did. But the fact that she can evoke a desire to learn more about an era is what keeps me reading her books.

I'll tell you what I told her in my intial email. I actually hide her books from myself within bookshelves or in boxes of books so that I always have one of her books somewhere unread in case I get a craving for her work. Otherwise I would probably read all her books back to back.

I have never been able to read the same author back to back. Needing a change after ever book. And usually an author's writing and stories tend to be on alike.

But with Shreve I could read her back to back to infinity. She is an amazing writer.

I believe my speech should end now. Boop. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“As other reviewers have already mentioned Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve is definitely a novel full of passion and beauty. It is haunting and the individual characters, their traits and unique personalities and ultimately their fates, will stay with you for a long time after putting the book down.
I too found the entire theme of the novel slightly disturbing, but also very important. At the beginning I found it slightly difficult to get into the book, but once I was one third through the book, I found myself hardly unable to put it down again.
Anita Shreve is able to accurately describe the all-consuming passion and power that is love. Love in all its beauty, but also love that despairs and is so fierce that it burns everything that surrounds it.

I would recommend this book, mostly to other girls and women, and only if you do enjoy reading about powerful and forceful emotions.”

• Rated 5 stars

“The setting (NH coast) and time period (1899) appealed to me and the story was quite compelling. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Anita Shreve describes the place and the characters so well and the story is beautifully told. It stayed with me long after I put it down.”

• Rated 5 stars

“As my sister in law put it, "this book is scandalous". The book reveals a lot of taboo issues in a time when people were "civilized" and did not do anything wrong (yeah right). It is a bit slow in parts but the intensity if the subject matter keeps you hooked. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Enjoyed this story of young girls struggle with growing up too fast and the perils of life in the 1800's”

• Rated 4 stars

“good read”

• Rated 5 stars

“This book is a little long, especially in the beginning, but I am so glad that I finished it. In the beginning of the twentieth century, a young woman from a prominent family has an affair with an older man, disgracing her own mother and father and destroying the family of her lover... and that's just the beginning. The rest of the story tells how Olympia finds herself and takes the rest of her life into her own hands. A great read. ”