Jeremie Jullien Jullien من عند Emanovka, Tulskaya oblast', روسيا، 301626 من عند Emanovka, Tulskaya oblast', روسيا، 301626

Something of a chore as the Russian novels are- but he transports you elsewhere. This is about a con game based on the fact that peasants were sold as part of the land they lived on. A real exploration of the class system of old Russia.

How I Came To Read This Book: Harper Collins sent me an ARE. The Plot: A plane is hijacked and downed in the jungles of Colombia - and the 68 surviving passengers are taken hostage. What the guerrillas in charge don't know is passenger #69 - Emma Caldridge - is alive, well, and a force to be reckoned with. Emma's an extreme long distance runner, able to top 100 miles in a single race. She's also a botanist / researcher with an extensive knowledge of the plants of the world, especially in the Colombian jungle she had just visited in the past year. Despite these traits that should give Emma greater odds in a hellish situation, her own agenda - and tense government interactions - may put everyone (good and evil) in more danger than imaginable. The Good & The Bad: I don't really read thrillers / mass market books, so I felt like a bit of a genre fish out of water here. That being said, the bad is what you'd expect from a book like this: relatively flat characters (with the exception of Emma, although her lost love backstory, odd familial relations, and motives for being in Colombia all felt a bit forced), way too many loose ends, a relatively convoluted plot, surprisingly predictable in the who will live and die aspect, and frustratingly - not as tense as it could have been. The main saving grace, aside from the overall readability and speediness of the chapters, was the two unique elements of Emma's character I mentioned in my synopsis. Learning about the plants and their unique effects (which are mostly real, according to the author's note) was quite interesting, and Emma's advantages as a runner made certain elements of the book a bit more realistic. The Bottom Line: Your typical thriller...I think? Too many loose ends to make for a tight, tense book. Anything Memorable? Nope. 50-Book Challenge?: Book #14 in 2009