A cute potboiler mystery for the early chapter book set.

I just really like Patchett's writing style in general, having enjoyed [b:Bel Canto|5826|Bel Canto|Ann Patchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165551537s/5826.jpg|859342] and [b:Truth & Beauty: A Friendship|3686|Truth & Beauty A Friendship|Ann Patchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285952618s/3686.jpg|994121]. This one is about a trip into the Amazon wilderness, a trip into the jungle, and about facing your fears and the darkness. I had trouble putting the book down.

Dear Mr. Sanderson--I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if the first 400-500 pages weren't as boring and the last 200 or so not so slammingly fast-paced I could barely keep up. I think you could have cut down a lot of the set-up and stretched out more of the end of the book. That being said, I still enjoyed it overall.

Just re-read this book. It's still as good as I remember! :)

This book has many interconnecting stories that loosely follow a group of friends through their mid to late twenties and focuses mostly on relationships, although a few also look at jobs. I guess I didn't really like the sort of "happily-ever-after" every character got at the end. It's not really that every character is happy, but every character is with someone and seems to be somewhat happy. It's probably a realistic ending, but for some reason, I was kind of hoping one of the characters would end up alone and realizing that was okay for the moment.

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as the first one. I'm still willing to read book three!