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"  The Odds by Stewart O&amp;#039;Nan  The Odds begins with the tragedy of the looming insolvency of a couple&amp;#039;s finances and their disintegrating marriage. The story takes place over a weekend, an ostensible second honeymoon at Niagara Falls for Art and Marion Fowler. Haunted by the inability to sell their home and the loss of their jobs, they intend to bet their savings at the casino and declare bankruptcy\u2014and divorce\u2014if they lose. The novel is tender and insightful, cluttered with the atmosphere of the real Niagara Falls. The characters are complicated, flawed, interesting people\u2014a couple with a lifetime&amp;#039;s worth of joys and grievances. The novel&amp;#039;s prose is fluid, the characters thoughtfully constructed, and the premise a daring, compassionate look at a couple&amp;#039;s worth to each other in our times. \u2014Alta E. Dawson, Los Gatos, CA.  O&amp;#039;Nan is most clever at constructing cringe-worthy interior monologues that expose the hypocritical inner musings of this married couple as they negotiate their way back to love. \u2014Penny Bernal, Encinitas, CA Subtly bittersweet and endearingly gentle, O&amp;#039;Nan&amp;#039;s lyrical writing provides an original vision of the all too common search for meaning in love. \u2014Meghan Allen, North Coventry, PA While the premise that a couple married for thirty years would literally &amp;quot;bet it all&amp;quot; on roulette is pretty unbelievable, the dialogue and interactions described between the two felt real. O&amp;#039;Nan&amp;#039;s depiction of their mixed feelings of guilt and hope is gloomy without being depressing. Though the reader sympathizes with the couple&amp;#039;s plight through most of the novel, I couldn&amp;#039;t help but roll my eyes at the obvious and implausible happy ending. \u2014Erin Clevenger, Columbus, OH O&amp;#039;Nan&amp;#039;s story of a couple trying one last time to pull out of their cash-strapped, loveless lives reads as a painful memory. Perhaps because too many people today are in similarly dire straits, reading about one more such couple seems to make no difference. The characters evoked no redeeming qualities. The story oozes resignation and does little to inspire or enlighten the reader. In their troubles we may see our own, but in their resignation we see only a less noble side of the human condition. \u2014Kathleen C. Hefley, Longmont, CO Niagara Falls seems an unlikely destination for a couple whose home and marriage are lost, but despite their regrets and hopelessness, they ultimately rediscover the greatest gamble of all. The charm of this novel builds slowly, but it&amp;#039;s well written, and worth the wait. \u2014Narci Drossos, Valdosta, GA O&amp;#039;Nan&amp;#039;s wonderful writing describes Niagara Falls perfectly, to the point where you feel you could walk down the main drag and know exactly where you were. While the story doesn&amp;#039;t make love or marriage seem enticing by any means, the gambling event brings this couple together in a way they have forgotten how to do, in a mindset in which they feel free and wild again, and helps them realize that maybe the spark between them is not entirely dead. \u2014Amanda J Umlandt, Cape Charles, VA  Underground Time by Delphine de Vigan  In Underground Time (translated from French), two loosely connected stories run in parallel. In the first, Mathilde wrestles with being professionally and emotionally undermined by her boss. In the second, Thibault struggles to get over his break-up with a woman who is emotionally unavailable to him. Both share a robust, persevering attitude toward life that is on the verge of crumbling. Threads of hopelessness, isolation, and loss of faith in the world are seamlessly woven throughout the text. De Vigan writes these characters into self-imposed insular worlds, underscoring their sense of defeat with several missed opportunities to connect with one another. The novel succeeds in capturing the helplessness and stoicism of those alone in the world, living quietly desperate lives. \u2014Alta E. Dawson, Los Gatos, CA. DeVigan&amp;#039;s follow up to No and Me is an astoundingly uncomfortable read. Mathilde and Thibault are miserable, lonely, and exhausted. Their pain rises from the pages like an eerie fog rolling in from the sea, chilling the reader. While not enjoyable per se, de Vigan&amp;#039;s prose kept me turning the pages. Watching the unfolding of Mathilde and Thibault&amp;#039;s days felt like being trapped in their living nightmare with them. \u2014Meghan Allen, North Coventry, PA When I read the synopsis, I thought this story was going to be one of those trite tales about a chance meeting of strangers. Instead, it delved much deeper. Both of the main characters experience deep internal conflicts, which are not resolved in a typical, cookie-cutter fashion. While I was surprised and a bit disappointed by the ending, somehow I was left with a feeling of hope. \u2014Kate Esposito, Las Vegas, NV This is a tale more about exhaustion than about realization or completion. The two stories exist as miserable partners to one another. It is the place between these intersections that fills this novel, and the resolution reminds us that there is really no connection in a busy city. The urban bustle seems to win out in the end of this tale, and the protagonists are merely its gristle. \u2014Kathleen C Hefley, Longmont, CO I felt that de Vigan was &amp;quot;dancing&amp;quot; the two main characters around one other throughout their mundane and frustrating workday in Paris, and that the book was climaxing continually until the end, where a chance encounter left me going, &amp;quot;That was it?&amp;quot; Although it was dark, and the ending anti-climactic, I liked the style of writing and enjoyed the book overall. \u2014Amanda J Umlandt, Cape Charles, VA De Vigan&amp;#039;s book is an expos\u00E9 about isolation. It was difficult for me to connect to the two characters or the storyline. Yes, big, bad cities can be isolating and lonely, but these characters didn&amp;#039;t exactly make an effort to connect with people. I finished the book and said, &amp;quot;What was the point?&amp;quot; \u2014Seniye Groff, Portland, OR I found the two main characters to be melodramatic. While they choose the same day to make a change in their lives, most of the novel is the drawn-out depression of how difficult it is for them to make the effort. The anticipation of the two characters finally encountering one another is tense and encourages anxiety, but disappoints by providing little insight or clarity. The thing that I most appreciated was that the woman had career issues and the man had relationship issues. It was nice that these clich\u00E9s were at least swapped to the less stereotyped gender. \u2014Erin Clevenger, Columbus, OH  Inseparable by Dora Heldt  In Inseparable (translated from German), Heldt writes about Christine, a woman with a successful career and not-so-successful love life. A past betrayal of a close female friend has informed all of Christine&amp;#039;s friendships and romances since. On her birthday, several of Christine&amp;#039;s current friends invite a slew of her long-lost friends to celebrate. As the novel spools along the months of party planning, it gives us insights into the protagonist&amp;#039;s past and present. While she rushes headlong toward the disparate elements of her life colliding on her birthday, she and her friends ruminate over the nature of women&amp;#039;s relationships with each other, and with men. Overall, a thoughtful, generous novel about women, and how their relationships grow over time. \u2014Alta E. Dawson, Los Gatos, CA. Everyone has been betrayed by a friend. Christine, finding her erstwhile best friend had been sleeping with her (now ex) husband, questions all of her friendships and begins to despair. Her remaining girlfriends, in an attempt to prove her wrong, begin to contact all of Christine&amp;#039;s old friends with whom she has lost touch. Sweet, moving, and occasionally funny, Inseparable looks at the ties that bind women, and reminds us how wonderful and comforting those friendships can be. \u2014Meghan Allen, North Coventry, PA This was a heartfelt tale of friendships had, loved, lost, and then rekindled. It truly shows the depth of the female friendship bond. As a woman who has found herself physically distanced from so many of my friends, it was comforting to realize that no matter what happens, no matter how close or distant you may become, a good friend really is like a good book\u2014you can pick up where you left off. \u2014Amanda J Umlandt, Cape Charles, VA The superficial premise of Inseparable limits the novel. The conceit is that the party planners must relocate Christine&amp;#039;s friends from childhood and college, even though she has lost touch with them. Friendship is celebrated in this novel, but the lack of realistic tension creates a distance for the reader. \u2014Penny Bernal, Encinitas, CA I was excited to read a book about female friendships and reconnecting, but was disappointed that all of the characters were uninteresting, or noticeably undeveloped\u2014even the protagonist. There are vignettes of flashbacks to old memories that are simply boring. Nothing exciting happens, and there are too many characters with too little to say to make the reader care about any of them. The premise seemed to imply that the novel would praise female friendships, but it mostly highlighted cattiness and random affairs.\u2014Erin Clevenger, Columbus, OH Though Christine&amp;#039;s view on relationships is remarkably pragmatic, we have to wade through the prattling of her friends as they dig up her past to find her long lost friends. Heldt&amp;#039;s character development is a bit unbalanced; Christine provides a realistic portrait of someone whose life has built up a catalog of memories both good and bad, but her coworkers and family try to recreate the fantasy that her past holds charming and endearing friendships. \u2014Kathleen C. Hefley, Longmont, CO As Christine&amp;#039;s friends track down the various women in her past, an interesting thing happens\u2014they each begin to examine their own lives. This introspection leads to some transformation, sappy sentiments, and heartfelt apologies. This book really makes the reader think about their own past, and the possibility of reconnecting with the various people they have met over the years. \u2014Seniye Groff, Portland, OR "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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