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Undertow: A Novel
A frontier world on the back end of nowhere is the sort of place people go to get lost. And some of those people have secrets worth hiding, secrets that can change the future–assuming there is one. . . . André Deschênes is a hired assassin, but he wants to be so much more. If only he can find a teacher who will forgive his murderous past–and train him to manipulate odds and control probability. It’s called the art of conjuring, and it’s André’s only route to freedom. For the world he lives on is run by the ruthless Charter Trade Company, and his floating city, Novo Haven, is little more than a company town where humans and aliens alike either work for one tyrannical family–or are destroyed by it. But beneath Novo Haven’s murky waters, within its tangled bayous, reedy banks, and back alleys, revolution is stirring. And one more death may be all it takes to shift the balance. . . .
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 25, 2013
1230 people are currently reading
3749 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Bear
312 books2,463 followersWhat Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 504 reviews
August 20, 2022
i won't lie this was kind of a mess. cool seeing the author's growth though!
October 24, 2013
3 stars!
I guess I’m in the minority with my thoughts and feelings about this book.
Second chance love stories have always been my downfall. I love them, I crave them, I need them in my reading lists to maintain some form of sanity. I was intrigued by the book cover and blurb so I immediately jumped at the chance to read this book. To say I was disappointed in the characters and story plot would be an understatement.
The book is about 22 year old Maura who has the “perfect” life: sweet boyfriend, nice trust fund, and a bright future as a lawyer. Though she hides it well, she is still heartbroken and emotionally stunted after her first love, Nate, ups and leaves her with a heartbreaking letter as his only notice. I usually love these kinds of plots! But for reasons listed below, the story didn’t work for me. I will say, though, the author has a fantastic writing style! I could really tell Maura was cut deeply by her failed relationship with Nate.
“There are literally a thousand words in the English language that destroy me. Innocent words, common words – ocean, canoe, fort, UVA, beach, baseball, virginity. If I could remove them all from the dictionary I would. I wonder how long it will take before every single reminder of him doesn’t blow through me like some kind of natural disaster, taking away every vestige of happiness I was feeling the second before?”
This book starts strong. I appreciated the past-present POVs that shed some light on Nate and Maura’s unique relationship. The (bad) turning point for me was around 41% where it became okay for your married brother to screw around with your friend, when you JUST realized your family was a controlling freakhouse, and when your hometown is the modernized version of the 1800s, where arranged marriages and rich-trumps-poor events happen. I get that the setting, the plot played an important role in this book, and it worked for many readers out there, but for me, it was a jumbled mess. Too much ‘look-but-don’t-touch,’ resulting in cheating, betrayal, and a case of ‘who can one-up each other’s jealousy’ sex scenes.
Still, I would have rated this book higher, but one tiny detail made me bump it down to 3. I absolutely despised Maura. She is the ultimate anti-heroine I’ve read about. At first, I could sympathize with her situation, stuck between sweet boyfriend and old love, shouldering her family’s expectations. She soon lost whatever backbone she had and my respect for her withered.
STOP HERE if you don’t want any plot-related spoilers. Please keep in mind this is my take on the book events and doesn’t reflect the general consensus.
Scenario 1: Nate and Maura resolve their past differences in, like, 3 pages, which isn't ideal but fine; however it’s SO obvious that they still have feelings for each other. What do they do? They decide to be FRIENDS, that’s what. Actually Maura decided that. So what happens when she sees Nate out with other girls? She gets all jealous and has fury sex with Ethan. And then 200 pages later, they’re sadly telling each other they can’t be together. What I don’t understand is why? I mean, how could they have a chance to be together when Maura NEVER thinks of breaking up with Ethan in the first place? Not until it’s the end of the book???!!! HUGE communication gaps, eeek!
Scenario 2: Maura almost gets raped by Graham, a childhood acquaintance. And her reaction to it???!!! Ugh, seriously, I face-palmed. Just to be fair, let’s let Maura tell the story, hmm?
“If I’m going to have to go through the rest of my life running into Graham I don’t need everyone in the world knowing it happened. And how am I going to explain that you were there to save me? Ethan’s jealous enough as it is.”
Like whaaaaaaat?! Do you see what I mean? Do you see my frustration and problem with this character? Granted, it's taken out of context, but she almost gets raped and all she cared about at the moment was her image and Ethan’s feelings???!!! GRRR. Honestly, Nate was the best character in the book, with flawless qualities, but even he could not block out my disgust for Maura’s wishy-washy personality and weak beliefs.
There are a lot more examples of what I didn’t like, especially that messed up family of hers, and how she always caves into their demands but that would ruin the entire book so I’m not going to say much about that. Overall, I tried to enjoy the story. I really did. I connected with the author’s writing style, as you can tell because her words made me experience such rage and frustration, but I COULD NOT connect with Maura. Too weak. Too indecisive. Too...just too much to handle. Though the ending was supposed to make me shout for joy, by that time I just didn’t care what happened to her to cheer. I was only concerned about Nate and his poor taste in women.
Back to what I was saying in the beginning, this book just wasn’t for me.
Copy kindly provided by author in exchange for an honest review.
I guess I’m in the minority with my thoughts and feelings about this book.
Second chance love stories have always been my downfall. I love them, I crave them, I need them in my reading lists to maintain some form of sanity. I was intrigued by the book cover and blurb so I immediately jumped at the chance to read this book. To say I was disappointed in the characters and story plot would be an understatement.
The book is about 22 year old Maura who has the “perfect” life: sweet boyfriend, nice trust fund, and a bright future as a lawyer. Though she hides it well, she is still heartbroken and emotionally stunted after her first love, Nate, ups and leaves her with a heartbreaking letter as his only notice. I usually love these kinds of plots! But for reasons listed below, the story didn’t work for me. I will say, though, the author has a fantastic writing style! I could really tell Maura was cut deeply by her failed relationship with Nate.
“There are literally a thousand words in the English language that destroy me. Innocent words, common words – ocean, canoe, fort, UVA, beach, baseball, virginity. If I could remove them all from the dictionary I would. I wonder how long it will take before every single reminder of him doesn’t blow through me like some kind of natural disaster, taking away every vestige of happiness I was feeling the second before?”
This book starts strong. I appreciated the past-present POVs that shed some light on Nate and Maura’s unique relationship. The (bad) turning point for me was around 41% where it became okay for your married brother to screw around with your friend, when you JUST realized your family was a controlling freakhouse, and when your hometown is the modernized version of the 1800s, where arranged marriages and rich-trumps-poor events happen. I get that the setting, the plot played an important role in this book, and it worked for many readers out there, but for me, it was a jumbled mess. Too much ‘look-but-don’t-touch,’ resulting in cheating, betrayal, and a case of ‘who can one-up each other’s jealousy’ sex scenes.
Still, I would have rated this book higher, but one tiny detail made me bump it down to 3. I absolutely despised Maura. She is the ultimate anti-heroine I’ve read about. At first, I could sympathize with her situation, stuck between sweet boyfriend and old love, shouldering her family’s expectations. She soon lost whatever backbone she had and my respect for her withered.
STOP HERE if you don’t want any plot-related spoilers. Please keep in mind this is my take on the book events and doesn’t reflect the general consensus.
Scenario 1: Nate and Maura resolve their past differences in, like, 3 pages, which isn't ideal but fine; however it’s SO obvious that they still have feelings for each other. What do they do? They decide to be FRIENDS, that’s what. Actually Maura decided that. So what happens when she sees Nate out with other girls? She gets all jealous and has fury sex with Ethan. And then 200 pages later, they’re sadly telling each other they can’t be together. What I don’t understand is why? I mean, how could they have a chance to be together when Maura NEVER thinks of breaking up with Ethan in the first place? Not until it’s the end of the book???!!! HUGE communication gaps, eeek!
Scenario 2: Maura almost gets raped by Graham, a childhood acquaintance. And her reaction to it???!!! Ugh, seriously, I face-palmed. Just to be fair, let’s let Maura tell the story, hmm?
“If I’m going to have to go through the rest of my life running into Graham I don’t need everyone in the world knowing it happened. And how am I going to explain that you were there to save me? Ethan’s jealous enough as it is.”
Like whaaaaaaat?! Do you see what I mean? Do you see my frustration and problem with this character? Granted, it's taken out of context, but she almost gets raped and all she cared about at the moment was her image and Ethan’s feelings???!!! GRRR. Honestly, Nate was the best character in the book, with flawless qualities, but even he could not block out my disgust for Maura’s wishy-washy personality and weak beliefs.
There are a lot more examples of what I didn’t like, especially that messed up family of hers, and how she always caves into their demands but that would ruin the entire book so I’m not going to say much about that. Overall, I tried to enjoy the story. I really did. I connected with the author’s writing style, as you can tell because her words made me experience such rage and frustration, but I COULD NOT connect with Maura. Too weak. Too indecisive. Too...just too much to handle. Though the ending was supposed to make me shout for joy, by that time I just didn’t care what happened to her to cheer. I was only concerned about Nate and his poor taste in women.
Back to what I was saying in the beginning, this book just wasn’t for me.
Copy kindly provided by author in exchange for an honest review.
Want to read
October 1, 2016
FREE on Amazon US today (10/1/2016)
Stand-alone.
BLURB:
Maura Pierce seems to have everything – a bright future, a trust fund and a boyfriend who can’t wait to settle down. It almost seems like enough until Nate Sullivan comes home. Nate – her childhood best friend, her first love. The boy who left without a trace one night and broke her heart. When their attraction threatens the future she and her parents have so carefully crafted, loyalties will be tested and secrets will be uncovered. Giving in may cost her everything. But how do you resist the only thing you’ve ever really wanted?
FREE: https://www.amazon.com/Undertow-Eliza...
FREEBIES are often good for MORE than one day, I have gathered all my FREEBIES on a special shelf: Kindle-freebies (currently over 500 books)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
October 23, 2015
To be only 253 pages, this book took me a while to get through... I can only compare it to what I imagine it would be like to swim across a 6x6 hole filled with wet sand.
I'm a sucker for second chance romance, and I'm a sap when it comes to first loves, especially when it all involves characters from two different worlds finding a way to overcome the odds. So I should love this book~ sadly, I didn't, though.
Here's what's wrong....
1. Maura.
She has zero backbone until the very end, and even then it's only because someone else (Nate) is holding her spine upright.
She is constantly judging other characters and musing at how horrible they are as humans - her brother cheating, Nate's using women, the rich in her community trying to keep the poor segregated and destroy their access to the beach, betrayals by various characters, etc. Yet, she herself stoops to use Nate's 'townie' status as an insult. She cheats. She settles into a relationship of connivence and uses Ethan as a buffer. She stands by with knowledge of betrayals and cheating, not only not doing anything, but remaining friends with the people sleeping with a married man. The list goes on, but basically she's a hypocrite.
2. TOO much Fucking Other Characters
There's just too much f'ing of other characters for me to really root for a second chance. Misunderstandings and lies of the past are cleared up, which should be the moment all f'ing other people is ceased, but instead readers still have to read about the MC's screwing other people and even SAYING I LOVE YOU TO SOMEONE ASIDE from who we are supposed to be rooting for here. Not cool!
3. Poor Writing Habits
I hate when an author uses 'I saw x,y,z emotions cross his face, but didn't know what it meant' blah blah. It's a cop out to CONSTANTLY do that. Use f'ing dialogue, actions, etc to CONVEY what the character is feeling & thinking. Reading all these various looks and her quizzical analysis of them grew very tiresome.
4. The Monotony
It becomes monotonous and slow slow slow slow slow to basically repeat the same exact scenes over and over she ponders life, she goes to a bar, she sees Nate, she gets pissed he is w someone else, she screws her bf, she goes to bed, she ponders life, she has some type of encounter with Nate, she goes to the bar, she's pissed he is there with someone else, she screw her boyfriend, .... On and on this pinwheel goes, occasionally throwing out some random tidbit of info or circumstance that will progress a HEA.
5. Nate.
Nate never fights for her. To be this all-consuming love, he basically just stands there while he waits to see how the fuck the book will end lol.
6. A Lot Of Info That's Not Relevant
Ethan's sister, for example, what did her scenes add to the story? Nothing. It tells me nothing about any of the MC's, doesn't pertain to any plot or subplot points, etc. Its useless info and screen time.
The Good
?
About all I can say is...
I did appreciate the smooth way the author switched from present to past in the initial chapters.
The twists weren't shocking by any means, but they were done well enough to add a little suspense here and there at the end.
Conclusion
A shit load wrong and not much at all to redeem it.
I'm a sucker for second chance romance, and I'm a sap when it comes to first loves, especially when it all involves characters from two different worlds finding a way to overcome the odds. So I should love this book~ sadly, I didn't, though.
Here's what's wrong....
1. Maura.
She has zero backbone until the very end, and even then it's only because someone else (Nate) is holding her spine upright.
She is constantly judging other characters and musing at how horrible they are as humans - her brother cheating, Nate's using women, the rich in her community trying to keep the poor segregated and destroy their access to the beach, betrayals by various characters, etc. Yet, she herself stoops to use Nate's 'townie' status as an insult. She cheats. She settles into a relationship of connivence and uses Ethan as a buffer. She stands by with knowledge of betrayals and cheating, not only not doing anything, but remaining friends with the people sleeping with a married man. The list goes on, but basically she's a hypocrite.
2. TOO much Fucking Other Characters
There's just too much f'ing of other characters for me to really root for a second chance. Misunderstandings and lies of the past are cleared up, which should be the moment all f'ing other people is ceased, but instead readers still have to read about the MC's screwing other people and even SAYING I LOVE YOU TO SOMEONE ASIDE from who we are supposed to be rooting for here. Not cool!
3. Poor Writing Habits
I hate when an author uses 'I saw x,y,z emotions cross his face, but didn't know what it meant' blah blah. It's a cop out to CONSTANTLY do that. Use f'ing dialogue, actions, etc to CONVEY what the character is feeling & thinking. Reading all these various looks and her quizzical analysis of them grew very tiresome.
4. The Monotony
It becomes monotonous and slow slow slow slow slow to basically repeat the same exact scenes over and over she ponders life, she goes to a bar, she sees Nate, she gets pissed he is w someone else, she screws her bf, she goes to bed, she ponders life, she has some type of encounter with Nate, she goes to the bar, she's pissed he is there with someone else, she screw her boyfriend, .... On and on this pinwheel goes, occasionally throwing out some random tidbit of info or circumstance that will progress a HEA.
5. Nate.
Nate never fights for her. To be this all-consuming love, he basically just stands there while he waits to see how the fuck the book will end lol.
6. A Lot Of Info That's Not Relevant
Ethan's sister, for example, what did her scenes add to the story? Nothing. It tells me nothing about any of the MC's, doesn't pertain to any plot or subplot points, etc. Its useless info and screen time.
The Good
?
About all I can say is...
I did appreciate the smooth way the author switched from present to past in the initial chapters.
The twists weren't shocking by any means, but they were done well enough to add a little suspense here and there at the end.
Conclusion
A shit load wrong and not much at all to redeem it.
June 24, 2022
2 stars
Oh Lordy… I really wanted to love this book. I think Elizabeth O’Roark is a talented author and I loved her other book (Waking Olivia) but this one didn’t work for me at all. I didn’t like any of the characters and …. I probably should have DNF’d it by the halfway mark because I could already tell I wasn’t liking it but I had hope that it would get better. Sigh.
Oh Lordy… I really wanted to love this book. I think Elizabeth O’Roark is a talented author and I loved her other book (Waking Olivia) but this one didn’t work for me at all. I didn’t like any of the characters and …. I probably should have DNF’d it by the halfway mark because I could already tell I wasn’t liking it but I had hope that it would get better. Sigh.
Audio book source: Hoopla
Story Rating: 2 stars
Narrators: Stephanie Wyles
Narration Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 9h 18m
February 22, 2022
sorry, i can't this heroine so judgemental and wish-washy
girl you are not all that okay...
girl you are not all that okay...
April 24, 2023
Undertow is not the best work from Miss O'Roark. I think maybe this is an old book erotten in her younger year. Good thing her recent works is much more mature and interesting.
Sadly, Undertow missed the mark. Characters are childish. Plot is repeating. Not the best work.
2 stars
Sadly, Undertow missed the mark. Characters are childish. Plot is repeating. Not the best work.
2 stars
July 27, 2024
As the name might suggest, this sci-fi thriller sucked me in with the promise of revolution against human colonizers on a planet styled after the Louisiana bayous, and kept pulling me along with the constant twists and reveals about characters’ identities and loyalties, as well as the tech at play and the nature of the planet and its inhabitants. It does have a slight “too many things” problem, in that it moves so fast there isn’t time to develop all of these threads to the depth that some readers may want. Still, while I would really like to know more about the Slide tech, or the mechanisms of human cloning, or the culture of the ranids, or why exactly Cricket has issues with her dad…we get what is needed for the story to function!
"André dated an archinformist. Personally, he thought what he did was more ethical. He just killed people. Cricket took apart their lives, everything they might have backed up, relegated to hard memory...Only wet memory was safe from her and her data-mining fellows...And without people like her...the kinds of manipulations conjures like Ziyi Zhou and licensed coincidence engineers performed would be impossible."
If you believe the blurb on the back, the main character of this is André Deschênes, an assassin who wants to get out of the business and learn “conjuring”, a technique that involves manipulating probabilities to create desired events. However, this is actually a multiple POV book – and Bear uses this writing style very effectively to show the reader different sides of the action and create a sense that everyone has their own plans and secrets, and keep you guessing about who might double-cross who and why. The other most notable POV characters are Cricket, a skilled data miner who dates André but is NOT his girlfriend (she would like to be clear about that); Jean Krok, a freelance conjure man with ties to the ranid resistance; and Gourami, a ranid oil-worker-turned-reluctant-revolutionary.
"it occurred to him...that some truths were not of the nature that people could be expected to handle. He wished he could say it was some sort of a spiritual revelation, but mostly it was the wisdom born of nightmares. You think you're fine. You think you got through it all right. And then you wake up sure the cold sweat on your face is blood, so real you can taste it."
Gourami is definitely my favorite, in part because se is genuinely a sweetheart (especially compared to the three humans just mentioned), but also because se is unexpectedly relatable. Most of us are not assassins, high-powered hackers, or former mercenaries turned magicians, and killing someone would be a novel and upsetting experience. At the start of the story, Gourami is just chilling at home, enjoying the comforts of human technologies (hot soup and space-Netflix), not at all interested in getting involved in the resistance movement. But then se tries to do a good deed, and gets drawn into the complicated political machinations of the story. And it is all very disorienting and traumatizing – yet, by the end, Gourami not only So, yay!
Now, you may have notices the word “se” in that last paragraph. The frog-like ranids (who, as in many cultures on earth have done, simply refer to themselves as “persons” rather than by a native species name) are, for lack of a better word, a non-binary species/culture. I saw one review say that the concept of endoparent vs. exoparent recreates female and male too closely – I disagree for two reasons! First, on the biology end, exoparents contribute gametes, endoparents swallow (unrelated-to-them) fertilized eggs into their brood pouches to take care of. So the endoparent is more like a surrogate/foster mom in terms of role. I’m a little unclear on whether there is a single type of gamete or you have one exoparent contributing eggs and another sperm and, if the latter, whether each individual can produce both or if there are biological males and females (though they definitely don’t have sexual dimorphism in size or secondary sexual characteristics, because that’s something they think is weird about humans). And it would make sense that that is unclear because, second…gender is a social category, not a biological category. I’m pretty sure, based on what we see, that being an endoparent or an exoparent is not biologically determined and, while the social roles related to that are slightly different, ranid endoparents are not raising their hatchlings with an expectation of being one or the other, and everyone refers to everyone else as “se”.
Now, given that, and the previous Bear book I’d read (Carnival), I was a bit disappointed not to get any human queerness! I would say “you can’t have everything”…but you actually could have, at least in the background! I guess at least it is acknowledged as a thing that exists: "'There's a man,' [the fortune teller] said, after a few quiet moments...It was as good a starting place as any, and unless she was an orphaned lesbian, likely to provoke some kind of a response."
Overall, though, a very entertaining book with some cool sci-fi ideas, some nice themes about shitty people learning to be less shitty and all sorts of people gaining courage to stand up for what matters, with a bit of a stick-it-to-the-colonizer-corporations social conscience.
"André dated an archinformist. Personally, he thought what he did was more ethical. He just killed people. Cricket took apart their lives, everything they might have backed up, relegated to hard memory...Only wet memory was safe from her and her data-mining fellows...And without people like her...the kinds of manipulations conjures like Ziyi Zhou and licensed coincidence engineers performed would be impossible."
If you believe the blurb on the back, the main character of this is André Deschênes, an assassin who wants to get out of the business and learn “conjuring”, a technique that involves manipulating probabilities to create desired events. However, this is actually a multiple POV book – and Bear uses this writing style very effectively to show the reader different sides of the action and create a sense that everyone has their own plans and secrets, and keep you guessing about who might double-cross who and why. The other most notable POV characters are Cricket, a skilled data miner who dates André but is NOT his girlfriend (she would like to be clear about that); Jean Krok, a freelance conjure man with ties to the ranid resistance; and Gourami, a ranid oil-worker-turned-reluctant-revolutionary.
"it occurred to him...that some truths were not of the nature that people could be expected to handle. He wished he could say it was some sort of a spiritual revelation, but mostly it was the wisdom born of nightmares. You think you're fine. You think you got through it all right. And then you wake up sure the cold sweat on your face is blood, so real you can taste it."
Gourami is definitely my favorite, in part because se is genuinely a sweetheart (especially compared to the three humans just mentioned), but also because se is unexpectedly relatable. Most of us are not assassins, high-powered hackers, or former mercenaries turned magicians, and killing someone would be a novel and upsetting experience. At the start of the story, Gourami is just chilling at home, enjoying the comforts of human technologies (hot soup and space-Netflix), not at all interested in getting involved in the resistance movement. But then se tries to do a good deed, and gets drawn into the complicated political machinations of the story. And it is all very disorienting and traumatizing – yet, by the end, Gourami not only So, yay!
Now, you may have notices the word “se” in that last paragraph. The frog-like ranids (who, as in many cultures on earth have done, simply refer to themselves as “persons” rather than by a native species name) are, for lack of a better word, a non-binary species/culture. I saw one review say that the concept of endoparent vs. exoparent recreates female and male too closely – I disagree for two reasons! First, on the biology end, exoparents contribute gametes, endoparents swallow (unrelated-to-them) fertilized eggs into their brood pouches to take care of. So the endoparent is more like a surrogate/foster mom in terms of role. I’m a little unclear on whether there is a single type of gamete or you have one exoparent contributing eggs and another sperm and, if the latter, whether each individual can produce both or if there are biological males and females (though they definitely don’t have sexual dimorphism in size or secondary sexual characteristics, because that’s something they think is weird about humans). And it would make sense that that is unclear because, second…gender is a social category, not a biological category. I’m pretty sure, based on what we see, that being an endoparent or an exoparent is not biologically determined and, while the social roles related to that are slightly different, ranid endoparents are not raising their hatchlings with an expectation of being one or the other, and everyone refers to everyone else as “se”.
Now, given that, and the previous Bear book I’d read (Carnival), I was a bit disappointed not to get any human queerness! I would say “you can’t have everything”…but you actually could have, at least in the background! I guess at least it is acknowledged as a thing that exists: "'There's a man,' [the fortune teller] said, after a few quiet moments...It was as good a starting place as any, and unless she was an orphaned lesbian, likely to provoke some kind of a response."
Overall, though, a very entertaining book with some cool sci-fi ideas, some nice themes about shitty people learning to be less shitty and all sorts of people gaining courage to stand up for what matters, with a bit of a stick-it-to-the-colonizer-corporations social conscience.
March 24, 2021
This book was like Love and Other Words but... bad
June 24, 2022
Nope! This book was NOT for me. Too many issues with it. I should have skipped it.
In the words of Randy Jackson, "Yeah That's Gonna Be A No From Me Dog"
UNDERTOW
● Maura (22) & Nate (24)
● Ethan (26) - Nate’s cousin
● love triangle
● childhood friends
● second chance romance
● childhood: Nate is the helps kid
● childhood: Maura, her brother, and his 2 friends (one being Ethan) are wealthy
● meddling Grandmother
● miscommunication
● cheating
In the words of Randy Jackson, "Yeah That's Gonna Be A No From Me Dog"
UNDERTOW
● Maura (22) & Nate (24)
● Ethan (26) - Nate’s cousin
● love triangle
● childhood friends
● second chance romance
● childhood: Nate is the helps kid
● childhood: Maura, her brother, and his 2 friends (one being Ethan) are wealthy
● meddling Grandmother
● miscommunication
● cheating
Audiobook source: Hoopla
Narrator: Brooke Sanford Heldman
Length: 7H 53M
Read
November 12, 2012I have reluctantly adopted the policy of not giving star ratings to books written by the woman I'm dating. ;)
Undertow is not without its weaknesses and suffers a bit from the cramming of several major concepts each worthy of a full novel-length exploration into one brisk book. Even so, the world is richly built, the ideas flow fast and furious, and the proceedings are limned with Bear's trademark intelligence and precision.
This novel makes an interesting triptych with H. Beam Piper's earlier Little Fuzzy, to which it is partly a response and homage, and Hannu Rajaniemi's later The Quantum Thief, with which it shares a complex vision of a datasphere-driven future in which visual reality can be 'skinned' both consensually and non-consensually within the eyes and brains of those viewing it.
Undertow is not without its weaknesses and suffers a bit from the cramming of several major concepts each worthy of a full novel-length exploration into one brisk book. Even so, the world is richly built, the ideas flow fast and furious, and the proceedings are limned with Bear's trademark intelligence and precision.
This novel makes an interesting triptych with H. Beam Piper's earlier Little Fuzzy, to which it is partly a response and homage, and Hannu Rajaniemi's later The Quantum Thief, with which it shares a complex vision of a datasphere-driven future in which visual reality can be 'skinned' both consensually and non-consensually within the eyes and brains of those viewing it.
October 26, 2016
1 HUGE EYEROLL STAR
The only thing I liked about this
book was our hero Nate. He did
not deserve Maura and all her hot
mess.
The question that burns my mind
the entire time I am reading this book
is, Does Maura have a golden vagina?
Seriously, every man in this book
wanted her. Wanted to be with her,
or marry her, one even attempted
raping her. Maura had the personality
of a baked potato. She was boring.
Never standing up for herself, or
for Nate. Always following what others
wanted her to do, how others wanted
her to live, and all the while making
excuses for her silly behavior in her
mind.
She spent 98% of the book in a
woe-is-me vegetated state, seemingly
to want Nate. But, I didn't believe
this. How can Maura supposedly
pine for her great love Nate, when
she is screwing Ethan? She is a
couple with Ethan, she can't
orgasm with Ethan unless she
thinks of Nate. Who does this?
Maura's character is an insult to
my intelligence, and the only
reason I kept reading was thinking
perhaps I missed something?
I could not wrap my head around
what Nate could have possibly seen
in her. She wasn't that friendly,
sweet, giving towards him. And
when her and Nate both realize
that their breakup was due to
family influence, you would think
Maura would run to the "great
love of her life", yeah? Well no,
not our heroine, our heroine runs
off to Paris with Ethan, because
that is what her family would want.
Proceeds to have sex with him for
2 days straight, and justifies this
in her head with "this is what
her family wants".
I could go on, but I won't. I hate
wasting my time on books like this
where I am supposed to root for my
couple, but I can't see past the poorly
written heroine. Nate deserved better
than this...I deserved better than this!!
Having ranted, I see this book has tons
and tons of 5 star reviews, so go and
decide for yourself! Good luck
The only thing I liked about this
book was our hero Nate. He did
not deserve Maura and all her hot
mess.
The question that burns my mind
the entire time I am reading this book
is, Does Maura have a golden vagina?
Seriously, every man in this book
wanted her. Wanted to be with her,
or marry her, one even attempted
raping her. Maura had the personality
of a baked potato. She was boring.
Never standing up for herself, or
for Nate. Always following what others
wanted her to do, how others wanted
her to live, and all the while making
excuses for her silly behavior in her
mind.
She spent 98% of the book in a
woe-is-me vegetated state, seemingly
to want Nate. But, I didn't believe
this. How can Maura supposedly
pine for her great love Nate, when
she is screwing Ethan? She is a
couple with Ethan, she can't
orgasm with Ethan unless she
thinks of Nate. Who does this?
Maura's character is an insult to
my intelligence, and the only
reason I kept reading was thinking
perhaps I missed something?
I could not wrap my head around
what Nate could have possibly seen
in her. She wasn't that friendly,
sweet, giving towards him. And
when her and Nate both realize
that their breakup was due to
family influence, you would think
Maura would run to the "great
love of her life", yeah? Well no,
not our heroine, our heroine runs
off to Paris with Ethan, because
that is what her family would want.
Proceeds to have sex with him for
2 days straight, and justifies this
in her head with "this is what
her family wants".
I could go on, but I won't. I hate
wasting my time on books like this
where I am supposed to root for my
couple, but I can't see past the poorly
written heroine. Nate deserved better
than this...I deserved better than this!!
Having ranted, I see this book has tons
and tons of 5 star reviews, so go and
decide for yourself! Good luck
January 30, 2015
So my kid has this ridiculously awesome car. It’s a Chrysler 300, it has those ridiculously stupid, or awesome, I can’t decide which, wheels that all them kids are crazy for these days. You know, where it is the illusion of being all rim with just the thinnest sheen of rubber that passes for a ‘tire.’
Seriously, the car is way too nice. It was purchased at a police auction, I think, and then was one of his friend’s, until he decided to get a truck. At such a time it ended up with my son.
Yay for him, he has this stupid/awesome chic magnet of a car. Somehow, over his Christmas break, he was off snowboarding, and I was stuck at the car shop getting his oil changed. He had the problem where one of his tires kept losing air, and he asked me to ask them to patch it.
‘Sure thing,’ they said, ‘no problem.’ I was personally surprised to learn that those tires even held air, again, they’re only about as thick as a sheet of paper. The wheels are all rim.
‘Looks like a nail was in the tire, not gonna be a problem,’ they said.
I sit in the lobby of the shop, and I wait. Thankfully, I’d taken a book with me, not this book, that would have made sense for me to tell this story then, but the book I read before I read this book. So they are at least connected, um, sort of.
Whatever, shut up.
After, and I’m not kidding here, about 3 hours, they finally come and get me, they drag me out into the shop floor, and they say something to me that I’d previously only heard on the Simpsons.
‘Sir, I’m afraid we legally can’t let you drive out of here on this tire.’
I shit you not. Those were the words that the man said to me. Serious as can be.
And thus went a blow-up that was worthy of an episode of punk’d. I called the man things I’ve never heard before. People ask writers where their stories come from, bystanders were coming to me afterwards and asking where my curses come from. I’d called him a liar, a thief, I accused him of being a spawn of incest, of taking his pleasure with the likes of farm animals and household appliances. I went on and on, and I and after about 30 minutes of that, I bought a new tire.
I’m not especially proud of what I did. But I had a home contractor that ruined my life for the better part of a year, and at the end of him ripping me off, stealing my money and other such things, he told me to expect his lawsuit. I had a short leash for this sort of thing.
But like I said before, I ended up buying a new tire. The rims, of course, don’t take normal tires, they take these things that are as thick as the sole of a sneaker, and as wide as a river. They cost accordingly to replace.
It was the day after Christmas, I decided it would be a surprise bonus Christmas gift for my party animal kid, who makes me do his crap work while he plays with his friends.
I leave, none too happy, but with a new tire.
One week later, I am reading this book, and my kid leaves for school, then comes back a few minutes later to tell me that his tire is flat. The same tire.
The same tire.
THE. SAME. TIRE.
He airs it back up, and this time I tell him to take his stupid car and his stupid wheels and stupid tires back to the shop and let those stupid people fix his stupid shitty car.
He calls me a few hours later and tells me I have to pick him up. Apparently, they gave him the ‘ol, I-can’t-legally-let-you-drive-out-of-here-on-this-tire speech.
What is it with these people? They have a game where they just see how awful they can be?
With the warranty for the tire, since it’s only a week old, they’ll knock $50 off a replacement, they say.
I decide to call, different guy this time, good for me, I can just repeat my curses from before without worrying about the same guy having to hear it twice.
After all is said, my son has another new tire, this one they at least relented and replaced it without charge. Me, I feel like I just carried the one ring all the way to Mount Doom only to find out later it was part of a set, that I didn’t save anyone.
They tell me to expect this tire to be flat within another week or so, with the tire ruined. They tell me that those rims won’t take a new tire. That rim is like the mighty Lion that walks into a new pride and kills all the cubs. It simply won’t brooke any challenger.
And through all that, I was reading this book. It was okay, but given the rep of the author I was expecting something that rose to the occasion of my high level of drama in my own life. But alas, it couldn’t. It had moments. But in all, I was underwhelmed by it.
The worst kind of book for me, really, because it wasn’t bad enough to warrant any sort of mockery, it was a genuinely fine story. I just want something great.
Seriously, the car is way too nice. It was purchased at a police auction, I think, and then was one of his friend’s, until he decided to get a truck. At such a time it ended up with my son.
Yay for him, he has this stupid/awesome chic magnet of a car. Somehow, over his Christmas break, he was off snowboarding, and I was stuck at the car shop getting his oil changed. He had the problem where one of his tires kept losing air, and he asked me to ask them to patch it.
‘Sure thing,’ they said, ‘no problem.’ I was personally surprised to learn that those tires even held air, again, they’re only about as thick as a sheet of paper. The wheels are all rim.
‘Looks like a nail was in the tire, not gonna be a problem,’ they said.
I sit in the lobby of the shop, and I wait. Thankfully, I’d taken a book with me, not this book, that would have made sense for me to tell this story then, but the book I read before I read this book. So they are at least connected, um, sort of.
Whatever, shut up.
After, and I’m not kidding here, about 3 hours, they finally come and get me, they drag me out into the shop floor, and they say something to me that I’d previously only heard on the Simpsons.
‘Sir, I’m afraid we legally can’t let you drive out of here on this tire.’
I shit you not. Those were the words that the man said to me. Serious as can be.
And thus went a blow-up that was worthy of an episode of punk’d. I called the man things I’ve never heard before. People ask writers where their stories come from, bystanders were coming to me afterwards and asking where my curses come from. I’d called him a liar, a thief, I accused him of being a spawn of incest, of taking his pleasure with the likes of farm animals and household appliances. I went on and on, and I and after about 30 minutes of that, I bought a new tire.
I’m not especially proud of what I did. But I had a home contractor that ruined my life for the better part of a year, and at the end of him ripping me off, stealing my money and other such things, he told me to expect his lawsuit. I had a short leash for this sort of thing.
But like I said before, I ended up buying a new tire. The rims, of course, don’t take normal tires, they take these things that are as thick as the sole of a sneaker, and as wide as a river. They cost accordingly to replace.
It was the day after Christmas, I decided it would be a surprise bonus Christmas gift for my party animal kid, who makes me do his crap work while he plays with his friends.
I leave, none too happy, but with a new tire.
One week later, I am reading this book, and my kid leaves for school, then comes back a few minutes later to tell me that his tire is flat. The same tire.
The same tire.
THE. SAME. TIRE.
He airs it back up, and this time I tell him to take his stupid car and his stupid wheels and stupid tires back to the shop and let those stupid people fix his stupid shitty car.
He calls me a few hours later and tells me I have to pick him up. Apparently, they gave him the ‘ol, I-can’t-legally-let-you-drive-out-of-here-on-this-tire speech.
What is it with these people? They have a game where they just see how awful they can be?
With the warranty for the tire, since it’s only a week old, they’ll knock $50 off a replacement, they say.
I decide to call, different guy this time, good for me, I can just repeat my curses from before without worrying about the same guy having to hear it twice.
After all is said, my son has another new tire, this one they at least relented and replaced it without charge. Me, I feel like I just carried the one ring all the way to Mount Doom only to find out later it was part of a set, that I didn’t save anyone.
They tell me to expect this tire to be flat within another week or so, with the tire ruined. They tell me that those rims won’t take a new tire. That rim is like the mighty Lion that walks into a new pride and kills all the cubs. It simply won’t brooke any challenger.
And through all that, I was reading this book. It was okay, but given the rep of the author I was expecting something that rose to the occasion of my high level of drama in my own life. But alas, it couldn’t. It had moments. But in all, I was underwhelmed by it.
The worst kind of book for me, really, because it wasn’t bad enough to warrant any sort of mockery, it was a genuinely fine story. I just want something great.
July 25, 2022
Undertow was the last book I had left to read to be caught up on Elizabeth O’Roark’s backlist. She easily became a favorite of mine at the beginning of the year and I really enjoyed this second chance romance between childhood friends that are from very different worlds.
“I wonder if he remembers that anymore. I wonder if he remembers how much he wanted me once. He was my best thing, my sweetest thing, and he wasn’t really mine at all.”
Maura has grown up privileged and wealthy, every summer her and her brother are sent to their grandparents mansion at the beach to spend the entire summer there. And for her entire life she has known Nate, he lives at the beach town year-round and is her grandparent’s housekeeper’s son. Growing up together, spending every summer together, Nate and Maura were always close. As they both became teens, other feelings started to come to the surface and eventually they got together. He was all of her firsts but they were torn apart when she was just 17.
This story is told with flashbacks so we get to see all of their memories together and falling in love and falling apart. In present day, Maura hasn’t seen or spoken to Nate for 5 years and she’s back for the summer and her grandparent’s beach house for the first time. Maura definitely feels pressured by her family to act, date, and live a certain way. They have expectations of who is good enough for her and what her future will look like. And it has never been “townie” Nate. Now Maura starts dating Ethan, one of her parent’s friends sons who she also grew up with and her family couldn’t be more thrilled. But Maura is wanting to keep things casual but quickly realizing she might just get pulled under by everyone else’s expectations for her life. Maura’s family is definitely a lot and the worst, everyone besides her grandfather that is. Nate even compares them to wanting her to live like it’s the 1800s or like they’re in the mafia, only allowed to date people within their circle of friends with similar wealth and lifestyle.
I loved Nate and I love romances told like this with flashbacks and moments and history of time they spent together. Maura and Nate are definitely meant to be and I did hate how much her family influenced her choices and life, like girl you are 22 just stop and live your life. But I get it at the same time, just tough to read when Nate was so much better for her. There is cheating in this, just not between the actual couple of the book.
“I wonder if he remembers that anymore. I wonder if he remembers how much he wanted me once. He was my best thing, my sweetest thing, and he wasn’t really mine at all.”
Maura has grown up privileged and wealthy, every summer her and her brother are sent to their grandparents mansion at the beach to spend the entire summer there. And for her entire life she has known Nate, he lives at the beach town year-round and is her grandparent’s housekeeper’s son. Growing up together, spending every summer together, Nate and Maura were always close. As they both became teens, other feelings started to come to the surface and eventually they got together. He was all of her firsts but they were torn apart when she was just 17.
This story is told with flashbacks so we get to see all of their memories together and falling in love and falling apart. In present day, Maura hasn’t seen or spoken to Nate for 5 years and she’s back for the summer and her grandparent’s beach house for the first time. Maura definitely feels pressured by her family to act, date, and live a certain way. They have expectations of who is good enough for her and what her future will look like. And it has never been “townie” Nate. Now Maura starts dating Ethan, one of her parent’s friends sons who she also grew up with and her family couldn’t be more thrilled. But Maura is wanting to keep things casual but quickly realizing she might just get pulled under by everyone else’s expectations for her life. Maura’s family is definitely a lot and the worst, everyone besides her grandfather that is. Nate even compares them to wanting her to live like it’s the 1800s or like they’re in the mafia, only allowed to date people within their circle of friends with similar wealth and lifestyle.
I loved Nate and I love romances told like this with flashbacks and moments and history of time they spent together. Maura and Nate are definitely meant to be and I did hate how much her family influenced her choices and life, like girl you are 22 just stop and live your life. But I get it at the same time, just tough to read when Nate was so much better for her. There is cheating in this, just not between the actual couple of the book.
December 5, 2013
I can't even start to express how much I loved this book. My latest reads didn't catch my attention, I had little time to read (on the subway mostly), so I had like two hours a day (if most) to read, but with the rest I had no intention on keep reading (I had so much stuff to do!). With Undertow it was totally different I HAD TO KEEP READING! It was impossible to turn it down!
And how could I? Elizabeth writes WONDERFULY. Bravo! I can only say that! Her writing is appealing and you suddenly connect with Maura, the protagonist and the rest of characters!
I didn't have a crush on Nate, but he was definitely the guy for her - I loved this couple! I really loved the first half of the book, when the flashbacks of their old times together appear! It was a great way of creating mistery about their relationship: why did they break up if they were meant for each other? In the second half of the book the flashbacks disappear and we only live the present - when we'll finally find out why and so many other things!
"(...) And I really believe that once you've found that person," he says, turning from Brian to lock his gaze onto me, fierce and unapologetic, "then no matter how many times you've separated, you'll find each other again and again."
Highly recommended! It is a light read, but so deep and well written! Go and read it NOW!
"Don't you want to know that there is one person in the world who knows exactly who and what you are and loves you because of it and in spite of it?" he asks. "Don't you want to know that there's someone who will fix you when you're broken?".
And how could I? Elizabeth writes WONDERFULY. Bravo! I can only say that! Her writing is appealing and you suddenly connect with Maura, the protagonist and the rest of characters!
I didn't have a crush on Nate, but he was definitely the guy for her - I loved this couple! I really loved the first half of the book, when the flashbacks of their old times together appear! It was a great way of creating mistery about their relationship: why did they break up if they were meant for each other? In the second half of the book the flashbacks disappear and we only live the present - when we'll finally find out why and so many other things!
"(...) And I really believe that once you've found that person," he says, turning from Brian to lock his gaze onto me, fierce and unapologetic, "then no matter how many times you've separated, you'll find each other again and again."
Highly recommended! It is a light read, but so deep and well written! Go and read it NOW!
"Don't you want to know that there is one person in the world who knows exactly who and what you are and loves you because of it and in spite of it?" he asks. "Don't you want to know that there's someone who will fix you when you're broken?".
December 17, 2007
One sentence: Solid writing, nicely foreign future, good speculative use of the human impact of quantum physics, oddly un-foreign aliens.
I liked that the aliens, "ranids" or froggies in the vernacular, didn't have a species name. They call themselves "people" as most people do. Only the humans called them ranids. They were genderless, and this was done so well that at one point in the book there was what I assume was a spell-checker error and the neutral pronoun 'se' was suddenly 'she' which was jarring-- in my mind, the character certainly wasn't female, se was seself.
On the other hand, the ranids did have a binary reproductive split, either endo- or exo- parent, which both socially and biologically mapped a bit too closely to female and male for my satisfaction.
I liked what was done with quantum physics; the social and economic implications seemed well thought out and went further than most authors do except in the hardest of SF.
It seemed to me that at least one of the protagonists, André, was a character of colour, at least, going by a rather oblique hint. Did anyone else have that impression?
I found the book a bit unsatisfying in that although all of the characters had moved forward at the end, none of them had reached any kind of stable state; they had just transitioned to a new dynamic one. This is obviously perfectly reasonable and life-like, I just like resolution in my music and my novels; it's a personal preference.
I liked that the aliens, "ranids" or froggies in the vernacular, didn't have a species name. They call themselves "people" as most people do. Only the humans called them ranids. They were genderless, and this was done so well that at one point in the book there was what I assume was a spell-checker error and the neutral pronoun 'se' was suddenly 'she' which was jarring-- in my mind, the character certainly wasn't female, se was seself.
On the other hand, the ranids did have a binary reproductive split, either endo- or exo- parent, which both socially and biologically mapped a bit too closely to female and male for my satisfaction.
I liked what was done with quantum physics; the social and economic implications seemed well thought out and went further than most authors do except in the hardest of SF.
It seemed to me that at least one of the protagonists, André, was a character of colour, at least, going by a rather oblique hint. Did anyone else have that impression?
I found the book a bit unsatisfying in that although all of the characters had moved forward at the end, none of them had reached any kind of stable state; they had just transitioned to a new dynamic one. This is obviously perfectly reasonable and life-like, I just like resolution in my music and my novels; it's a personal preference.
December 28, 2019
4.5 stars... I liked this book a lot. Now that I’ve read several books by this author I have to say that I do wish that the endings were a little more flushed out. I feel like I spent the entire book waiting for the characters to get together and then once it happens the book is basically over.
June 25, 2025
More a 3.5 score, but I rounded up to 4. Honestly the beginning was a mess. The flashbacks throughout the first half were clunky and just didn’t work. They stunted the story in my opinion until about the halfway mark. Then we were in the present, flashbacks gone, and the story started to hit traction and really come together in a way that I could get behind both the MMC and FMC. Prior to that I was thinking of putting this in my DNF pile, but because I am a fan of this author I decided to hold on. I am glad that I did.
There is OM/OW drama throughout before they couple up…so for those who don’t like that probably best to avoid.Oh and our FMC is only narrator of story.
There is OM/OW drama throughout before they couple up…so for those who don’t like that probably best to avoid.Oh and our FMC is only narrator of story.
September 16, 2025
3.75⭐️
Undertow was an emotional, nostalgic romance that pulled me right into Maura and Nate’s complicated history. The second chance love story had all the longing and tension I hoped for, and the chemistry between them felt undeniable. I especially liked the way their past connection shaped every choice they made in the present, giving the story a bittersweet edge. At times, the drama leaned a little heavy and some of the side characters felt underdeveloped, but overall it was a heartfelt and compelling read. It captured the ache of first love and the risk of second chances beautifully.
Undertow was an emotional, nostalgic romance that pulled me right into Maura and Nate’s complicated history. The second chance love story had all the longing and tension I hoped for, and the chemistry between them felt undeniable. I especially liked the way their past connection shaped every choice they made in the present, giving the story a bittersweet edge. At times, the drama leaned a little heavy and some of the side characters felt underdeveloped, but overall it was a heartfelt and compelling read. It captured the ache of first love and the risk of second chances beautifully.
October 8, 2013
Jointly reviewed on: http://totallybookedblog.com/2013/10/...
Jenny: I did enjoy Undertow and I loved the back and forth, past/present flashbacks telling the story of the lost love between Nate and Maura.
This was a story of second chances and finding your way back to the one person who held your heart, took care of your heart and then destroyed it. It is of lies, deception and healing and it was a very well told story with just the right amount of all the elements we love in a romance story. What did you think G?
Gitte: I enjoyed this story, it was sweet and romantic with a great dose of angst. It was beautifully written and as you know I’m a sucker for a second chance romance. I thought the flashbacks were flawlessly written and what we learnt broke my heart. I swooned and then my heart broke. Great storyline!
‘In that moment, I wanted our old friendship back. But I wanted so much more too. Instead, all summer, I had nothing at all.’ – Maura
Jenny: Nate and Maura were childhood friends, with Nate being slightly older than Maura and seeing her as a little sister, that is until she grows up and their friendship blossoms into something more. These two were soul mates. Destined to be together until the night Nate leaves and breaks Maura’s heart. Just what it was that drove Nate away is told through flashbacks and present meetings?
Maura has never recovered from the love nor the hurt Nate caused her. She’s tried to move on in the five years since she’s seen him with no success.
After five years, she begins a relationship with another childhood friend, Ethan which appears to be something of substance. But is it? For me G, there was only one man here and that was Nate. He was divine and I was hanging on to find out what transpired between him and Maura to drive him away, were you?
Maura and Nate’s story was well told and and it broke my heart when past indifference’s came to light. Whilst I enjoyed it, unfortunately Undertow didn’t give me that gripping wow feeling but it did keep me invested to the end. I absolutely adored Nate, though I have to admit I became frustrated with Maura a few times. I couldn’t understand her thought processes at times and I really felt for Nate in all this. Undertow was a sweet and sad story about miscommunication, deceit and finding your way to that one person who will always own your heart.
‘What I see when I look at him is, inexplicably, pain. A mirror of my own.’ – Maura
Just as the story felt like it was dragging we were treated to and epilogue that was a real winner for and one that left me feeling satisfied. What about you G? How much did you love that epi?
Gitte: The epilogue was brilliant, it pulled me right back in and it salvaged a lot of frustration for me. Because, oh Jenny, Maura drove me nuts and I have to say she’s one of the reasons I just couldn’t mark this story higher. Unfortunately, her character grated on me through most of the story. She was a pushover, a hypocrite, a whiner and the fact that she went along with behaviour she knew to be wrong well…I just didn’t get her at all.
“What is with you people? You’d think you were in the Mafia the way you all cling together.” – Nate
Saying that, I did feel really sorry for her over the angsty and emotional miscommunication.
‘We have both changed, but in this moment that doesn’t matter to me at all I want to step back toward him, into him, and forget that five years have passed.’ – Maura
The other issue I had was the fact that it took so long before anything was resolved. It started to drag, then suddenly everything happened and became really rushed. Good thing the epilogue rocked, because it totally did! Overall, I enjoyed this story and I loved Nate and in the end I guess Maura too went quite a way in redeeming herself.
“Don’t you want to know there is one person in the world who knows exactly who and what you are and loves you because of it and in spite of it? …”Don’t you want to know that there’s someone who will fix you when you’re broken.” – Nate
Jenny: 3.5 Stars
Gitte: 3.5 Stars
ARC Supplied by Author in exchange for an honest review
Jenny: I did enjoy Undertow and I loved the back and forth, past/present flashbacks telling the story of the lost love between Nate and Maura.
This was a story of second chances and finding your way back to the one person who held your heart, took care of your heart and then destroyed it. It is of lies, deception and healing and it was a very well told story with just the right amount of all the elements we love in a romance story. What did you think G?
Gitte: I enjoyed this story, it was sweet and romantic with a great dose of angst. It was beautifully written and as you know I’m a sucker for a second chance romance. I thought the flashbacks were flawlessly written and what we learnt broke my heart. I swooned and then my heart broke. Great storyline!
‘In that moment, I wanted our old friendship back. But I wanted so much more too. Instead, all summer, I had nothing at all.’ – Maura
Jenny: Nate and Maura were childhood friends, with Nate being slightly older than Maura and seeing her as a little sister, that is until she grows up and their friendship blossoms into something more. These two were soul mates. Destined to be together until the night Nate leaves and breaks Maura’s heart. Just what it was that drove Nate away is told through flashbacks and present meetings?
Maura has never recovered from the love nor the hurt Nate caused her. She’s tried to move on in the five years since she’s seen him with no success.
After five years, she begins a relationship with another childhood friend, Ethan which appears to be something of substance. But is it? For me G, there was only one man here and that was Nate. He was divine and I was hanging on to find out what transpired between him and Maura to drive him away, were you?
Maura and Nate’s story was well told and and it broke my heart when past indifference’s came to light. Whilst I enjoyed it, unfortunately Undertow didn’t give me that gripping wow feeling but it did keep me invested to the end. I absolutely adored Nate, though I have to admit I became frustrated with Maura a few times. I couldn’t understand her thought processes at times and I really felt for Nate in all this. Undertow was a sweet and sad story about miscommunication, deceit and finding your way to that one person who will always own your heart.
‘What I see when I look at him is, inexplicably, pain. A mirror of my own.’ – Maura
Just as the story felt like it was dragging we were treated to and epilogue that was a real winner for and one that left me feeling satisfied. What about you G? How much did you love that epi?
Gitte: The epilogue was brilliant, it pulled me right back in and it salvaged a lot of frustration for me. Because, oh Jenny, Maura drove me nuts and I have to say she’s one of the reasons I just couldn’t mark this story higher. Unfortunately, her character grated on me through most of the story. She was a pushover, a hypocrite, a whiner and the fact that she went along with behaviour she knew to be wrong well…I just didn’t get her at all.
“What is with you people? You’d think you were in the Mafia the way you all cling together.” – Nate
Saying that, I did feel really sorry for her over the angsty and emotional miscommunication.
‘We have both changed, but in this moment that doesn’t matter to me at all I want to step back toward him, into him, and forget that five years have passed.’ – Maura
The other issue I had was the fact that it took so long before anything was resolved. It started to drag, then suddenly everything happened and became really rushed. Good thing the epilogue rocked, because it totally did! Overall, I enjoyed this story and I loved Nate and in the end I guess Maura too went quite a way in redeeming herself.
“Don’t you want to know there is one person in the world who knows exactly who and what you are and loves you because of it and in spite of it? …”Don’t you want to know that there’s someone who will fix you when you’re broken.” – Nate
Jenny: 3.5 Stars
Gitte: 3.5 Stars
ARC Supplied by Author in exchange for an honest review
January 1, 2011
Crunchy SF about the mining exploitation of a planet with a population of amphibious aliens, and corporate wrongdoing, and people who can alter probability with their minds, and redemption, and time forks.
To be fair, this book had the misfortune to intersect my life during a deeply frustrating snowed-in interlude, some bad travel, and today a – let’s just call it the aftermath of New Year’s and leave it at that. So not good context.
But still, meh. There’s a lot of stunt writing here – completely nongendered alien point-of-view, a climax of collapsing and expanding alternate realities – and it all just rubbed me as trying too goddamn hard. And everything else fell a little flat. Like I’d be reading along, and I’d think, ah, okay, these are background details alpha and beta that are supposed to lend depth to this supporting character. More of the same feeling that the book spent way too much time trying to be a thing and not actually being it.
Also, it didn’t magically cure my hangover, so I’m taking a star off for that.
To be fair, this book had the misfortune to intersect my life during a deeply frustrating snowed-in interlude, some bad travel, and today a – let’s just call it the aftermath of New Year’s and leave it at that. So not good context.
But still, meh. There’s a lot of stunt writing here – completely nongendered alien point-of-view, a climax of collapsing and expanding alternate realities – and it all just rubbed me as trying too goddamn hard. And everything else fell a little flat. Like I’d be reading along, and I’d think, ah, okay, these are background details alpha and beta that are supposed to lend depth to this supporting character. More of the same feeling that the book spent way too much time trying to be a thing and not actually being it.
Also, it didn’t magically cure my hangover, so I’m taking a star off for that.
June 6, 2023
This audiobook was included in my subscription. 9:18 h
I have listened to other book of Elizabeth O'Roark.
The story was an okay story, which was nice, after binging a great urban fantasy series. But it fell a little short, because I think that the FMC was a bit innocent and she had problems to leave her comfortable rich girl lifestyle. Even is she sees, how things are working in her society circles, it takes a long time until she opens her eyes completely. There is also a lot of non communication between the FMC Maura and the MMC Nate. They are childhood sweethearts torn apart by Maura's family because Nate is the son of the help and the bastard son of a rich guy, who ran away.
It was pretty clear, where this would go from the beginning. The only question was when will the FMC stop pleasing her society and start living her life. And she did not disappoint.
The story is heart warming and it gives a little hope, that people do start seeing!
I have listened to other book of Elizabeth O'Roark.
The story was an okay story, which was nice, after binging a great urban fantasy series. But it fell a little short, because I think that the FMC was a bit innocent and she had problems to leave her comfortable rich girl lifestyle. Even is she sees, how things are working in her society circles, it takes a long time until she opens her eyes completely. There is also a lot of non communication between the FMC Maura and the MMC Nate. They are childhood sweethearts torn apart by Maura's family because Nate is the son of the help and the bastard son of a rich guy, who ran away.
It was pretty clear, where this would go from the beginning. The only question was when will the FMC stop pleasing her society and start living her life. And she did not disappoint.
The story is heart warming and it gives a little hope, that people do start seeing!
December 5, 2013
I LOVE this book. I am now strugglng through work today because I sat up all night to finish it. If you love books by Tammara Webber, Samantha Young, Jessica Sorensen, etc. this is one for you! I really liked Maura, the main character, and, obviously, LOVED her former boyfriend NATE. Nate and Maura meet again when Maura returns to the beach town where she spent her summers as a child. Maura is being crushed by the life and expectations put upon her by her parents. As you get glimpses of her past, you begin to understand why she was never able to get over Nate, and longs for a life she does not think is possible. I got completely sucked in. . .
April 28, 2020
I really enjoyed this book, I couldn't put it down. This is the story of two best friends who spend every summer together at a beach house, Nate and Maura. Maura is the rich girl and Nate is the son of the paid help. As they get to their teens it becomes clear that there are more than platonic feelings between them. They love one another across a couple of summers, but it wasn't to be. The main narrative finds Maura coupled with someone else as she returns for the summer. Life has gone very differently than either of them planned or hoped. A great read.
September 21, 2013
Actually.....4.5 stars. It lost half a star for a tiny detail that I'm sure many people would've even blink at.
March 3, 2013
I'm finding myself having to revise my opinion of Elizabeth Bear. I read her "Blood and Iron" for my book club in 2006, and really didn't like it very much. But I was told, "Her sf is much better than this venture into fantasy" - (I should mention here that I have this vague feeling that I then read 'Carnival', I think around June 2007, but I appear to have neglected to review it and I can't remember it, which is really not good. Although I have another vague feeling that I liked it.) Anyway, so this month I read 'Undertow' and actually really really liked it. It reminded me of Phyllis Gotlieb's 'Flesh and Gold' - which was one of my favorite books of last year's reading. Like that book, this book deals with the exploitation of a peaceful aquatic race by planetary colonists, but it's definitely its own story.
Greene's World is a planetary backwater, considered to be a peaceful place by many, a place to escape the vicious politics of 'Central,' a way to avoid the past. The main industry is a mining operation, where most of the workers are an aquatic, frog-like native species, generally considered to be sub-human and pre-industrial by the human colonists of the city of Nova Haven.
But the politics of Novo Haven are not so non-existent that there isn't enough work for Andre Deschenes, a pure-business assassin-for-hire, who justifies his work to himself by believing that the people whom he is hired to knock off would be killed by someone else if he didn't do it, likely in a less humane manner.
But when Andre is hired to knock off a woman who is suspected to be involved in trying to foment a revolution amongst the natives - and who also happens to be a close friend of Andre's girlfriend - he is unwittingly drawn into a web of interplanetary politics, hidden exploitation, an unknown alien culture, new technology, and a suspicion that Greene's World is more important than Central has let on - indeed, the very existence of humanity's interplanetary empire may depend on it.
Highly recommended.
Greene's World is a planetary backwater, considered to be a peaceful place by many, a place to escape the vicious politics of 'Central,' a way to avoid the past. The main industry is a mining operation, where most of the workers are an aquatic, frog-like native species, generally considered to be sub-human and pre-industrial by the human colonists of the city of Nova Haven.
But the politics of Novo Haven are not so non-existent that there isn't enough work for Andre Deschenes, a pure-business assassin-for-hire, who justifies his work to himself by believing that the people whom he is hired to knock off would be killed by someone else if he didn't do it, likely in a less humane manner.
But when Andre is hired to knock off a woman who is suspected to be involved in trying to foment a revolution amongst the natives - and who also happens to be a close friend of Andre's girlfriend - he is unwittingly drawn into a web of interplanetary politics, hidden exploitation, an unknown alien culture, new technology, and a suspicion that Greene's World is more important than Central has let on - indeed, the very existence of humanity's interplanetary empire may depend on it.
Highly recommended.
October 8, 2023
1 star
Well, this one was a dud.
DNFed pretty quickly.
Have no patience for another immature bs.
Still love O'Roark because you know, Waking Olivia and A Deal with the Devil? Duh!
So I'll just pretend this book never happened.
Well, this one was a dud.
DNFed pretty quickly.
Have no patience for another immature bs.
Still love O'Roark because you know, Waking Olivia and A Deal with the Devil? Duh!
So I'll just pretend this book never happened.
July 17, 2018
Another “I screwed around because of my feelings for her” types
Why do authors write “romance” genre stories where the male lead screws woman like crazy supposedly to deal with their feelings for or because the love the female? I don’t know one woman that finds that attractive in real life. In a novel, it makes me nauseated. No one has to be a virgin, a past is just that, a past. But this crap is ridiculous and overdone. Instead of the story the author wanted to tell, all I’ll remember is that at heart, this was another one of “those stories”. If I even remember it at all.
Why do authors write “romance” genre stories where the male lead screws woman like crazy supposedly to deal with their feelings for or because the love the female? I don’t know one woman that finds that attractive in real life. In a novel, it makes me nauseated. No one has to be a virgin, a past is just that, a past. But this crap is ridiculous and overdone. Instead of the story the author wanted to tell, all I’ll remember is that at heart, this was another one of “those stories”. If I even remember it at all.
November 9, 2023
3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
My grudge. The hero was not more aggressive and heroic.
It was too realistic in that.
Slight shades of the heroine cheating on boyfriend. No matter how unwilling she is to be with the boyfriend. Cheating is cheating.
That is always a trigger for me. Cheating is ugly.
Betrayal by everyone in her life to break her up with the love of her life.
Does not have the special something that the Devil series has.
Cheating just puts me off so much.
My grudge. The hero was not more aggressive and heroic.
It was too realistic in that.
Slight shades of the heroine cheating on boyfriend. No matter how unwilling she is to be with the boyfriend. Cheating is cheating.
That is always a trigger for me. Cheating is ugly.
Betrayal by everyone in her life to break her up with the love of her life.
Does not have the special something that the Devil series has.
Cheating just puts me off so much.
October 8, 2014
I've had books by this author in my to-read pile and finally grabbed this out to read.
Why have I waited this long!!!! Bear is astonishing. Clear voiced, confident, compelling. Her world building is outstanding and her story kept me on the edge of my seat till the end.
I'm now a new fan and will be pulling out all the other books I've missed. Go. Grab yours!
Why have I waited this long!!!! Bear is astonishing. Clear voiced, confident, compelling. Her world building is outstanding and her story kept me on the edge of my seat till the end.
I'm now a new fan and will be pulling out all the other books I've missed. Go. Grab yours!
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