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Starting Today
An epic romance with twists and turns you're never going to expect.
When Anna-Sophia Giannopoulos moves from South Africa to the United States, she doesn't expect her life to change much. She loves her cello and knows she's a bit awkward in her own skin. Meeting actual friends in Petunia (Tune) Falls and Memphis Storm is the first step in pulling Anna-Sophia out of her shell.
Through the outrageous couple, she's introduced to Memphis's extended family. The Storms don't have a good reputation in their hometown but that doesn't stop them from being rowdy and ridiculous. All six brothers live on the same street in the same small town in Northeast Oklahoma. Their own sons have been born and raised there with a grandmother who takes no nonsense from any of them.
The oldest of Memphis's cousins, Rowe Storm manages to make quite an impression on the new girl with the unique accent. However, if you think you know where this story is going...you've got it all wrong.
"Starting Today" must be read so you can experience the laughter, tears, love, and pain for yourself. This is old-school emotion from Always the Good Girl, Shayne McClendon and you don't want to miss it.
This 800-page (195,000 word) book is going to derail your life. Make plans to do nothing while you inhale it.
When Anna-Sophia Giannopoulos moves from South Africa to the United States, she doesn't expect her life to change much. She loves her cello and knows she's a bit awkward in her own skin. Meeting actual friends in Petunia (Tune) Falls and Memphis Storm is the first step in pulling Anna-Sophia out of her shell.
Through the outrageous couple, she's introduced to Memphis's extended family. The Storms don't have a good reputation in their hometown but that doesn't stop them from being rowdy and ridiculous. All six brothers live on the same street in the same small town in Northeast Oklahoma. Their own sons have been born and raised there with a grandmother who takes no nonsense from any of them.
The oldest of Memphis's cousins, Rowe Storm manages to make quite an impression on the new girl with the unique accent. However, if you think you know where this story is going...you've got it all wrong.
"Starting Today" must be read so you can experience the laughter, tears, love, and pain for yourself. This is old-school emotion from Always the Good Girl, Shayne McClendon and you don't want to miss it.
This 800-page (195,000 word) book is going to derail your life. Make plans to do nothing while you inhale it.
679 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 11, 2018
22 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Shayne McClendon
82 books620 followersShayne McClendon is the author of more than fifty published books and over six hundred short stories (and counting).
She writes heart-pounding romantic fiction as Shayne McClendon, thrilling paranormal romance as Sabrina Rue, and LGBTQ+ action-packed erotica as Charlize Rojos. Recently, she started writing light novels as Honeycomb and is absolutely loving how fun it is!
Shayne spends most of her waking hours writing in one genre or another. Currently living in Tulsa, Oklahoma near her kids (who are all grown up now) and kept company by the best furry companions on the planet, this author takes the hermit lifestyle to a whole different level.
Coffee consumption is too high, amount of sleep is too low, but the words always feel just right.
If you’re looking for your next great read...look no further than Shayne McClendon! Her dramatic and erotic romances will grab hold and not let you go until the very last page.
Stop by her website Always the Good Girl and read short stories for free!
She writes heart-pounding romantic fiction as Shayne McClendon, thrilling paranormal romance as Sabrina Rue, and LGBTQ+ action-packed erotica as Charlize Rojos. Recently, she started writing light novels as Honeycomb and is absolutely loving how fun it is!
Shayne spends most of her waking hours writing in one genre or another. Currently living in Tulsa, Oklahoma near her kids (who are all grown up now) and kept company by the best furry companions on the planet, this author takes the hermit lifestyle to a whole different level.
Coffee consumption is too high, amount of sleep is too low, but the words always feel just right.
If you’re looking for your next great read...look no further than Shayne McClendon! Her dramatic and erotic romances will grab hold and not let you go until the very last page.
Stop by her website Always the Good Girl and read short stories for free!
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 22, 2020
"Fuck, yeah. I'm goddamn curious to see what happens next."
Tune held up her fist and Anna Sophia bumped it.
"Front row seat to crazy. Sign me up."
Chapter 34, Starting Today: A Street of Storms Novel, by Shayne McClendon.
And that, in a NUTshell, summarizes how I feel about this book. If you are going to write trash, GO BIG or go home. This author went CATACLYSMIC. In a long period of time where I basically skim every book because I have seen it all before, McClendon's stupendous trainwreck of WTFery buried under an avalanche that was swept away in a hurricane deserves my very grateful five star rating. The only way this could have been any better is if she had somehow worked in cannibalism, incest and ventriloquism into the plot but I always have hopes for the sequel, if there is any.
Before I read this book, I already had 88 books on my "Insane in the Membrane" shelf.
There was A Year and a Day, the one about the lynx licking a human woman's breasts erotically. (Most people think of that book as the "breast-milk feeding of the full grown hero" book but I am sticking with the lynx as the most wtf moment of that story).
There was The Australian Heiress which has an eagle murdering a human villain.
There was Purple Diamonds, the book in which the heroine makes love with the hero's ventriloquist dummy.
And of course, the book that started my Gloriously Bad Hall of Fame Winner sweepstakes, Diana Palmer's incomparable Wyoming Strong where the hero's super-sperm manages to impregnate heroine's imperforate hymen.
Nothing, none of those books, can hold a candle to Shayne McClendon's Epic Journey to the Twilight Zone, Starting Today: A Street of Storms Novel.
There is so much crazy in it that there is no way I can do full justice to it. Instead, I will have to skim the top 10% foam of this crazy latte and just put it in point form to give you an idea of what I went through:
-South African, teenage, Mary Sue heroine moves to a small town in Oklahoma due to her parents' job opportunities there and meets two best friends in senior year at high school, one of whom is named Petunia Falls Blossom, but goes by Tune.
-Mary Sue gets her own nickname combining her first names Anna and Sophia to make Aesop, which her friends think is the perfect moniker for her because she is so wise.
-Mary Sue plays all string instruments like a virtuoso but her true passion is writing YA Paranormal novels on the side.
-Mary Sue falls in love and gets herself pregnant by her boyfriend, High School Stud.
-Mary Sue and High School Stud decide to make a go at it because they have Twu Luv and everything will turn out all right despite the fact that they are just eighteen years old.
-In her seventh month of pregnancy, Mary Sue and High School Stud get into an inevitable Epic Fight brought on by stress of the pregnancy and playing house and High School Stud takes off.
(So far, no craziness, I know, bear with me: The author lured me in with about 20 chapters of a trite NA romance that created a false sense of safe predictability.)
-Mary Sue gets into a car accident while frantically looking for High School Stud, causing the baby to be born prematurely.
-High School Stud shows up at Mary Sue's hospital bedside COVERED IN BODILY FLUIDS, PERFUME AND LIPSTICK from the two hour sex marathon he had with his one time booty call to destress himself.
(No, no, this ain't the crazy part, patience, we're not even getting started yet...)
-Mary Sue and High School Stud break up despite their Great, Big, Once in a Lifetime TWU LUV. High School Stud leaves town to "find himself" and Mary Sue remains behind on the "Street of Storms" i.e. a street filled with High School Stud's relatives, to raise their newborn daughter alone.
-A depressed and heartbroken Mary Sue decides to frequent a lesbian bar out of the blue, where she coincidentally runs into Female Paramedic, the woman who helped her out of her car accident and saved her and her newborn daughter's life.
-Female Paramedic looks so much like High School Stud that Mary Sue's baby daughter takes one look at her and calls her "Dada."
(Okay, we are going up to the counter and waiting our turn in line to get tickets to Crazy Town...).
-Mary Sue and Female Paramedic enter a steamy two year relationship and are about to move in together and make it official when Mary Sue's South African Evil Cousin descends into town and swoops Female Paramedic right out from under Mary Sue's nose.
-Evil Cousin was Female Paramedic's lost love who vanished off the face of the earth years ago, when she was raped and had to give birth to a baby that she later gave up for adoption.
-Female Paramedic had always desperately wanted to reconnect with Evil Cousin, despite her Twu Wuv for Mary Sue, and despite the fact that Evil Cousin forced her to keep their relationship in the closet.
-Mary Sue tells Female Paramedic to go after her Twu Luv and make the break quick and final, like ripping off a band-aid, because it will be better that way.
-Mary Sue subsequently almost drinks herself to death from the heartbreak.
-High School Stud shows back up in Mary Sue's life to give her some sexual healing. He leaves her again because he hasn't found himself yet.
-Mary Sue purposefully lets High School Stud sexually heal her without the use of condoms because in her great wisdom, she decides it is time for her daughter to get a sibling.
-After the sexual healing is over and High School Stud hightailed it out of before the bedsheets cooled off, Mary Sue calls a meeting of everyone in her family and friend circle and tells them to Google her name, which none of them have done in the past five years that they have known her.
-The Big Google Reveal is that Mary Sue is an internationally reknown former child musical prodigy and billionaire heiress whose wealth would outclass the Onassis family, the Queen of England, and the Sultan of Brunei combined.
-Her family line can be traced back to the Roman Empire.
-She played a masquerade of being a girl next door in the small Oklahoma town that she moved to five years prior because she wanted a chance at a normal life.
-without bothering to change her name.
-and 100% confident that no one would ever think of Googling her before she was ready to call her meeting five years down the line.
-A seven foot tall bodyguard suddenly shows up at Mary Sue' side. He had been watching over her the entire time that she was "anonymous" in a small Oklahoma town but no one had noticed him because he is "that good."
(Congratulations, your tickets to Crazy Town have been purchased and ALL ABOARD, the train is departing...Toot...Toot)
-Mary Sue hightails it to South Africa back to the isolated family compound in the middle of nowhere, to heal from all her heartbreak, raise her daughter, and keep her new pregnancy secret.
-The South African compound was purposely built into a high-risk sex traffic and civil war area because Mary Sue's ancestors have always wanted their compound, with all its secret underground tunnels, to be a refuge for the local people fleeing from violence.
-During her stay at the compound, Mary Sue adopts a traumatized teenager from a nearby village that has endured a violent raid.
-There are armed guards, a housekeeper, cook, and many servants at the compound.
_There is no doctor or any medical staff around.
-Mary Sue has pregnancy check-ups by having video conferences with her obgyn in Johannesburg.
-Mary Sue's family and friends arrive at the compound to help her through the impending birth of her child.
-Female Paramedic and the Girlfriend-Stealing Evil Cousin show up uninvited too.
-Evil Cousin asks Mary Sue if her adopted teenaged daughter is her new lover.
-Evil Cousin also mocks the teenaged daughter for being too dark-skinned.
-Evil Cousin wears a bikini that used to belong to Mary Sue and flaunts her body and her relationship with Female Paramedic before Mary Sue.
-Nobody throws out Evil Cousin. Instead, Mary Sue's mother suggests that Evil Cousin assist Mary Sue at the time of childbirth since Evil Cousin is a medical doctor.
-Mary Sue goes into premature labor. It's TWINS! Nobody knew!
-Evil Cousin presides over the birth.
(Aaaaaand we have arrived at Crazy Town:Enjoy your stay and send in the clowns!)
-Here is where the book reaches its Crescendo of Crazy but I can't bring myself to type the words to tell you the gruesome details of what happens at this point except to say that Evil Cousin seizes her chance (and her scalpel) to kill Mary Sue and her unborn twins in the deliver room.
-If you have ever watched Dead Ringers, the horror film by David Cronenberg, the author GOES THERE.
-Mary Sue and her twins are saved at the nth hour by Female Paramedic and High School Stud who also showed up out of nowhere to be at the South African Compound.
-After Female Paramedic and High School Stud stop despondent Mary Sue's bleeding, they both give her a shower in order to prevent infection.
-Mary Sue, who recently almost had a heart attack giving birth to preemie twins, and then almost bled out from the ....*shudder*...injury inflicted on her by the scalpel-wielding Evil Cousin while trying to give birth, regains consciousness in the shower long enough to mutter that this threesomey shower is her fantasy come to life.
-Evil Cousin is unmasked. She hates Mary Sue because...
-Mary Sue could play the strings better than Evil Cousin in ten minutes while Evil Cousin had to spend years learning her instrument; aaaaaaand...
-Evil Cousin wanted to ask her baby daddy to marry her but instead found him ejaculating into Mary Sue's sundress because he preferred Mary Sue to Evil Cousin.
-Because of that, Evil Cousin lied about her baby daddy raping her and set him up for one of her other boyfriends to murder him.
-Evil Cousin also set out to seduce Female Paramedic because Mary Sue once remarked that Female Paramedic was so hot she could convert a straight woman to the other side.
-For all her crimes, Mary Sue sentences Evil Cousin tooooooo......
-ten years of banishment at a luxurious convent on an isolated tropical island somewhere.
(No, no, it's not time to leave yet. I'm afraid the train station is closed and you just HAVE to stay in Crazy Town.........4Evaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!)
-After Evil Cousin is disposed of, Female Paramedic and High School Stud decide to form a menage with Mary Sue because Mary Sue loves them both and should not be forced to choose.
-Everyone goes back to New York.
-High School Stud gets buried under the caved ceiling of a construction site.
-Mary Sue finds him comatose and rushes him to the hospital.
-When the hospital receptionist gives Mary Sue snark, she yells at her to Google her name and forces her way into the hospital room.
-Mary Sue saves High School Stud from coma and paralysis by giving him dirty talk that ressucitates his genitals and proves that he has not lost his bodily functions.
-Mary Sue and Female Paramedic give High School Stud a sex show in his hospital room to help heal him and bond with him as a true menage.
-Mary Sue, Female Paramedic and High School Stud live happily ever after with their little daughter, twin babies and teenaged adopted daughter...or do they???
-The book concludes with the Totally Unpredictable and Shocking News that Evil Cousin has Somehow gotten off the island of luxurious banishment and teamed up with another Enemy from Mary Sue's past to come after them.
Sequel bait! Sequel bait! Sequel bait!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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December 19, 2018
Heart rending and beautiful
I recently became a big Shayne McClendon fan. She writes very beautiful and torturous stories. It is rare I cry when reading, but she is an author who can make it happen, and she did that with this book.
This book is a new segue into the Hollow universe, and I didn’t realise it until about two thirds of the way through. You can easily read this as a first book and not miss anything from other books. However, I do recommend them.
Anna-Sophia Giannopoulos is a girl from South Africa of Greek heritage who has come to the US with her brilliant and kind parents who come to work for scientific company trying to save the planet. They are well off and adore their shy and brilliant daughter who has music running through her soul.
Anna-Sophie has always felt alone and believes her new American High School will leave her feeling the same way way, but her first day she is introduced to Tune (Petunia) and her best friend Memphis. These two eccentric and fascinating young people take Anna-Sophie under their wings and help her to embrace American culture, including helping her with her first real relationship with Memphis’ cousin Rowe.
The book spans several years of love, joy and heartache and you feel so much for the characters you can’t help but smile and weep alongside them. This author has never shied away from emotions and describes them so articulately you can’t help but be moved by what the characters are going through.
It is not only the emotion of the well drawn characters that keep you reading, but the plot, which is beautifully constructed and captivates the reader. I read this monster of a book in one sitting! I could not stop reading from breakfast until night until it was done. I didn’t want to lose the wonderful flow of words and events.
I highly recommend this read.
I recently became a big Shayne McClendon fan. She writes very beautiful and torturous stories. It is rare I cry when reading, but she is an author who can make it happen, and she did that with this book.
This book is a new segue into the Hollow universe, and I didn’t realise it until about two thirds of the way through. You can easily read this as a first book and not miss anything from other books. However, I do recommend them.
Anna-Sophia Giannopoulos is a girl from South Africa of Greek heritage who has come to the US with her brilliant and kind parents who come to work for scientific company trying to save the planet. They are well off and adore their shy and brilliant daughter who has music running through her soul.
Anna-Sophie has always felt alone and believes her new American High School will leave her feeling the same way way, but her first day she is introduced to Tune (Petunia) and her best friend Memphis. These two eccentric and fascinating young people take Anna-Sophie under their wings and help her to embrace American culture, including helping her with her first real relationship with Memphis’ cousin Rowe.
The book spans several years of love, joy and heartache and you feel so much for the characters you can’t help but smile and weep alongside them. This author has never shied away from emotions and describes them so articulately you can’t help but be moved by what the characters are going through.
It is not only the emotion of the well drawn characters that keep you reading, but the plot, which is beautifully constructed and captivates the reader. I read this monster of a book in one sitting! I could not stop reading from breakfast until night until it was done. I didn’t want to lose the wonderful flow of words and events.
I highly recommend this read.
April 28, 2018
I love Shayne’s books. This story had some really excellent parts to. I loved be the Storms and can’t wait to read more about them. As with most in this connected world, there is always lots of pain before the HEA. I loved Tune from the start. And Memphis too. I am an Oklahoman so some of these characters were very familiar.
I knew Rowe and Anna-Sophia were going to be a cataclysm. Sometimes your origin story traps you. Rowe has heard a story about the men in his family his whole life. It’s in his heartbeat and every cell so I must be his destiny. He expects it to happen so it does and he blows up his life with one bad decision.
Diana has had a devastating life of her own. She’s never fit or belonged. When she meets Anna Sophia on the worst night of her life, a connection is made. She finds herself in a unique position that changes her life. They are a fault line waiting on that shift.
All of the money and danger and insecurity adds layers to this story. There are babies and tragedy and lots of betrayal.
Although it’s not perfect, I look forward to more stories of the Storm men. And I just have to say that I love Kendrick. I can’t wait to see how his story plays out.
I knew Rowe and Anna-Sophia were going to be a cataclysm. Sometimes your origin story traps you. Rowe has heard a story about the men in his family his whole life. It’s in his heartbeat and every cell so I must be his destiny. He expects it to happen so it does and he blows up his life with one bad decision.
Diana has had a devastating life of her own. She’s never fit or belonged. When she meets Anna Sophia on the worst night of her life, a connection is made. She finds herself in a unique position that changes her life. They are a fault line waiting on that shift.
All of the money and danger and insecurity adds layers to this story. There are babies and tragedy and lots of betrayal.
Although it’s not perfect, I look forward to more stories of the Storm men. And I just have to say that I love Kendrick. I can’t wait to see how his story plays out.
August 8, 2021
I love books by Shayne McClendon, her books speak to me and they are ones that I go back to again and again. But I will admit that I struggled towards the end of this book, normally the author is really good at making sure that the trio is split evenly, that both partners get even time with the lead character, and that way you could connect.
But in Starting Today the ending was lopsided, in this story is about two separate relationships that join together in the end, but separately as a WW/WM partnership, and the focus was so much on the WW partnership, that the trio didn't feel complete and that threw the whole book for me.
Now don't get me wrong, as others have mentioned there is a whole bunch of wild and crazy other things going on, but that is the joy of a Shayne McClendon book! they are not like anything else you have read, they will be far-fetched and have fantastical storylines because not everything has to be true to life, and if you want a boring and predictable romance, then maybe this is not the author for you.
But in Starting Today the ending was lopsided, in this story is about two separate relationships that join together in the end, but separately as a WW/WM partnership, and the focus was so much on the WW partnership, that the trio didn't feel complete and that threw the whole book for me.
Now don't get me wrong, as others have mentioned there is a whole bunch of wild and crazy other things going on, but that is the joy of a Shayne McClendon book! they are not like anything else you have read, they will be far-fetched and have fantastical storylines because not everything has to be true to life, and if you want a boring and predictable romance, then maybe this is not the author for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2018
This is the kind of book that infiltrates your very soul. Following the life of Anna-Sophia will light up all your senses, bring to the brink of despair, and raise your awareness to what an open heart truly means.
I don't want to leave this Street of Storms for long. I was hooked on the Barter System Series and now I'm happily on the hook for this one, too. Ugh!! All teasing aside this is a down and dirty read with more surprises than the birthday room at Chuck-E-Cheese. Seriously, Shayne has killed it with her absolute realism when it comes to love, forgiveness, and renewal. Take a moment and one click Starting Today: A Street of Storms Novel today, I promise it will change the way you think and feel.
I don't want to leave this Street of Storms for long. I was hooked on the Barter System Series and now I'm happily on the hook for this one, too. Ugh!! All teasing aside this is a down and dirty read with more surprises than the birthday room at Chuck-E-Cheese. Seriously, Shayne has killed it with her absolute realism when it comes to love, forgiveness, and renewal. Take a moment and one click Starting Today: A Street of Storms Novel today, I promise it will change the way you think and feel.
April 22, 2018
Wow
This kept me reading. What a story! I will tell you I don’t enjoy reading WW. I read for enjoyment, and it’s not something I am interested in. So I skimmed through many pages. I enjoy ménage stories MFM but not MMF. Just not something I enjoy reading. Ok. Having said that and warned others like me, this is a really good story with fully developed interesting characters. This one is long but it’s good. Even if I did have to skip some pages. I recommend it.
This kept me reading. What a story! I will tell you I don’t enjoy reading WW. I read for enjoyment, and it’s not something I am interested in. So I skimmed through many pages. I enjoy ménage stories MFM but not MMF. Just not something I enjoy reading. Ok. Having said that and warned others like me, this is a really good story with fully developed interesting characters. This one is long but it’s good. Even if I did have to skip some pages. I recommend it.
April 25, 2018
Another thriller
A take of the ugly duckling turning into the swan. Finding herself in a small town in Oklahoma, the duckling blossoms into the beautiful swan. With the help of her best friends and two amazing lovers, she finds herself and the badass lurking underneath.
Step into Shayne's world. The world of stupid amounts of money, down to earth people and hot-as-the-sun sex. I promise you won't be disappointed.
A take of the ugly duckling turning into the swan. Finding herself in a small town in Oklahoma, the duckling blossoms into the beautiful swan. With the help of her best friends and two amazing lovers, she finds herself and the badass lurking underneath.
Step into Shayne's world. The world of stupid amounts of money, down to earth people and hot-as-the-sun sex. I promise you won't be disappointed.
May 29, 2018
Another great capillary of The Barter System universe
Starting Today can stand on it's own, but knowing the characters from The Barter System universe just strengthens my love for this book. You'll watch new characters grow before your eyes. Hot and steamy, dramatic, and enthralling, there's plenty of plot to keep it alive, and going. Shayne has done it again!
Starting Today can stand on it's own, but knowing the characters from The Barter System universe just strengthens my love for this book. You'll watch new characters grow before your eyes. Hot and steamy, dramatic, and enthralling, there's plenty of plot to keep it alive, and going. Shayne has done it again!
April 18, 2018
Powerful story that does not let you go.
If you like stories that make you feel. If you like the edge of descriptive sex. If you like a story that is next to impossible to put down once you start. If you like a happy ending that is not a fairytale. Check out this story.
If you like stories that make you feel. If you like the edge of descriptive sex. If you like a story that is next to impossible to put down once you start. If you like a happy ending that is not a fairytale. Check out this story.
July 11, 2018
A Ménage Saga
Starting with a shy teenage girl, who is mowed down in a full body tackle by the hot guy of the school, an amazing saga unfolds. The plot develops with great skill, and the characters even more so. An amazing story that develops in layers and plot twists.
Starting with a shy teenage girl, who is mowed down in a full body tackle by the hot guy of the school, an amazing saga unfolds. The plot develops with great skill, and the characters even more so. An amazing story that develops in layers and plot twists.
October 12, 2018
If you're addicted to Shayne McClendon's works like I am, you'll eat this book up. If you're new to her writing, this is the perfect place to start. I can't wait for more!
July 22, 2020
Breathless
I thought i was prepared for this story. I have read every book she had written but this just blew away all expectations!! I could not put this down!!!! I am struggling for the right words. Each part of this story just kept getting better and better. The growth of the characters was intense. And the feels, oh Lord the feels!! I cannot WAIT for more in this series!!!!!!!
I thought i was prepared for this story. I have read every book she had written but this just blew away all expectations!! I could not put this down!!!! I am struggling for the right words. Each part of this story just kept getting better and better. The growth of the characters was intense. And the feels, oh Lord the feels!! I cannot WAIT for more in this series!!!!!!!
November 13, 2025
Another winner
I love the world this author has created. With every story she spins a little more of her web to tangle us in. I love how characters from all the other series I love continue to show up. While you can certainly read as a stand alone do yourself a favor and get lost in the world this author has created for us. You won't regret it.
I love the world this author has created. With every story she spins a little more of her web to tangle us in. I love how characters from all the other series I love continue to show up. While you can certainly read as a stand alone do yourself a favor and get lost in the world this author has created for us. You won't regret it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews