If you can comfortably afford it and you want to, then sure. Do it.

That's my understanding, at least, yeah.

I can see both points you're making. I think the message requesting address confirmation should've at least been emailed out to everyone on their list, because I think a lot of people who ordered at the start have forgotten altogether or just written it off as a lost cause and don't bother to check the site anymore.

And there definitely are a lot of logistical concerns, no question, but at the end of the day it's kinda a self-inflicted wound or at best a case of the publisher having bitten off more than they could chew without realizing just how large the project would end up being.

I read it quite a while ago but yeah I would probably also give 2 stars it sucked

I've never been one to annotate beyond highlighting or underlining passages that resonate with me. I wish I was a more in-depth annotator. I've got an old used copy of Mansfield Park that someone annotated. It's one of my favorite books I own.

Why did she print out the manuscript....

I have read several of her books, mostly because they were recommended to me by friends but i’ve decided her books are simply not my jam. i did however really enjoy Layla and it was free on kindle unlimited. just very different from her other stuff. so if you ever give her another try, i suggest starting there!

i told myself maybe i’ll give her another chance and read another one of her “ famous “ books but after that one imma need a LONNGGG break from her

I read it a few months back. If I recall, the setup is that it is dark in the house at the time, lights went out so they only have candles I think, making it a little easier to pass off the cover up. Plus, that character is like the 5th (?) to die so can say that those remaining were pretty accepting that he’d be dead.

That said, when I was reading it, I was immediately suspicious of that death because of the way it was described. I didn’t quite get to the conclusion, but thought it was odd.

LOL right?! like the book had so much potential but just turned out to be a dumpster fire. i was entertained at least, even if for the wrong reasons.

RIGHT OUT OF ALL THEM DAMN CRIMINAL MINDS EPSIODES I WATCHED i sat there thinking there’s no way they are gonna not think this is murder just absolutely no way

i read that i must of just mindfully read it but WTF? if someone caught me reading something and i had to get rid of it my first thought would’ve been to flush it ??? this is why i hate rowen

also, I cannot get over how lowen thought she was so brilliant by being worried about the coroner finding fibers from a pillow in verity’s throat but nobody thought they would see significant bruising??????

C’MON COLLEEN!

Spoilers for a super old novel but I think what you might be reacting to is the fact that, honestly, the reveal doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in this one. Once again spoiler warning but the killer fakes his death midway through the story to throw off suspicion and they say he pulls it off with the help of the doctor, but he supposedly dies from a gunshot wound to the head. His body is on full display as the doctor examines him so it’s not like his body was hidden from examination.

I read it a few years back so correct me if I’m misremembering the details but I remember being very let down because I’d always heard this novel was one of the pinnacles of murder mysteries, but it’s just SO hard for me to believe that a gunshot wound to the head was successfully faked when so many other ways of “dying” would have worked much better.

just the parts with Jeremy’s name on it. if you thought the book was bad as is, please read the epilogue she wrote. AWFUL

WOAH HOLD I THOUGHT SHE FLUSHED THE WHOLE THING ? SHE PART OF IT???? how on earth did i miss that

why did she have to eat part of the letter???? just flush the whole thing! bizarre.

Those aren't necc. any less confusing, for someone who doesn't really get to use French much day-to-day. I find modern slang to be a bigger pain than archaisms in an otherwise straightforward sentence, personally, it's just look up that one word and carry on. And if classics are what someone is interested in reading, they're going to be better off just doing that, than something more modern that will have vocabulary and phrasing the older texts won't use while lacking some of those they do.

Harry Potter in French is very straightforward for learners with a lot of useful vocabulary, but think OP is past needing to read that if something else appeals more.

Agree on every point!!!!! This gave me a good chuckle. Long live Verity.

I’m glad i’m not the only one who didn’t understand the random death scene i also don’t understand how he fell in love with her after seeing someone die but hey he’s Jeremy 🤷‍♀️

I love watching trashy movies and then getting mad at the time i wasted but still enjoying bashing it

i wouldn’t say it’s bad but it’s not good and it’s not decent either so 😭 but was it a waste of my time? no because i got to laugh at how awful it was so

Your native language is English? Then, if you try and find you can't read in French, it's time to be realistic about how much French you actually know. It's not possible for someone who actually does know both languages not to be able to read in it. Pure guesswork will tell a native English speaker what absurd amounts of the vocabulary means even if they've spent no time studying French, because our language is in fact mostly French. If you've done this before with other languages you remember how, right?

Then there's online dictionaries, built in ones on Kindle. Cakewalk.

Edit: Seeing you write about the passage, it's very obvious you can do it. Practice will improve speed, it'll be fine.

Verity is bad and trashy but it messes with your mind. I just read it last week. I believe parts of rhe manuscript and the letter are true but the manuscript has the most truth. I don't think I'll read another book by her but I did enjoy chewing over the ending.

Also I agree the random death at the beginning was stupid. There were a hundred different ways she could have had them meet/do the weird clothes exchange.

It's a lot like a very old bad and trashy movie I like called Leave Her to Heaven. It's a book too but I'd recommend the movie first. That's almost as trippy without all the gross stuff.

I'm an Arabic professor who learned Icelandic for fun, and then I discovered Arnaldur Indriðason, and have absolutely loved his crime books, especially the Inspector Erlendur series. His books are very popular worldwide, and I've been very happy to be able to access them in the original.

Yeah any character could be made the murderer. It’s really about the message and the thread that connects the characters and the artistic originality of the motive.

Ohh okay, right DV has taken over and doing the final fulfillment of the orders, I think?

Reading the LB25 website itself, while yeah this all sucks, I don't envy the position they're in. 500 addresses still needing to be confirmed, all from orders over the past 19 years? Not happening. Statistically some of those folks have entered a new plane of existence over this time period. Others have moved. Others don't use the same email address any longer. Etc.

From a supply chain/fulfillment perspective this is giving me massive anxiety, how much they could have to float in inventory, or if they use the last addresses and these expensive books just get sent around to people who don't live somewhere anymore, etc.

But then again, fuck em, the 25th anny was 15 years ago. Get this shit out already.