Between Friends Book Club discussion

This thread is for all your thoughts and feels about At the Water's Edge. Please let us know in the beginning of your post what chapters your post is about so we can avoid it if their are spoilers.

Spoiler-free review-
I gave this book a 2 out of 5 stars, but it really deserves 2.5. The beginning of the book was difficult to get through because I hated the first 3 main characters you're introduced to. They're pretty much all you have for the first 100 pages. After the first 100 pages pass it gets a bit easier to read, but I still found it hard to connect with any of the characters. I loved the plot of the book but I feel like it could have been executed better. Sara Gruen does a good job building up suspense in the last 100 pages and that suspense got me through to the end, but the writing itself left a lot to be desired. I personally didn't like this book and wouldn't recommend it.

I finished at the waters edge today. I gave the book a 3/5 stars. It did take me about ten chapters to really get into the book. At first I was like this is not the type of books I like and I didn't know if I would actually finish it. However my goal of being in this group is to renew my love for reading and find some new genres to enjoy. Alert spoil alert do not read the post if you haven't finished the book!!!!!

Ellis was an asshole by all means. I could not stand him at all. The way he treated Maddie and everyone else around him it was no wonder his wife wanted a divorce. He was very self entitled and expected everyone to wait on him hand and foot.

I loved meg and angus. They were so humble and kind to take maddie in the way they did. Meg I can see as a beautiful women but was very humble and not boostful about her looks. The love story between angus and maddie in the end was very unexpected but amazing.

Overall I thought the story was great and i felt I could related to maddie. She wanted to be loved because no one had ever truly loved her and been there for her. In the end she realized she had been a Pon for Ellis and hank and her marriage was fake. This story was a way for her to rediscover herself and find out who she really was.

I just finished this book today.

Not sure where to start with this book. Very disappointed. I really disliked the main characters. Some of the events were too predictable and the writing was boring--I found myself struggling to focus on the book through most of it.

Toward the end I started to get into the book more but I can only surmise that is because Ellis and Hank were not in it as much, and when they were Maddie wasn't just going along blindly with whatever they said. Plus there was some "action" going on in the story with Maddie involving more likable characters such as Meg, Anna, and Angus.

I did roll my eyes a little at the Angus and Maddie love story-line...I have no doubt that Meg, Anna, and Angus became close to Maddie and took her in, but the cynic in me wasn't buying that they "loved each other with all their hearts" after barely speaking that whole time.

The neat tidy ending felt a little cliché to me. Overall it left me wanting more--I went in with high hopes and left feeling unfulfilled.

Heather wrote: "I just finished this book today.

Not sure where to start with this book. Very disappointed. I really disliked the main characters. Some of the events were too predictable and the writing was bori..."

I totally agree with you about the ending! I honestly wish she had left out the two American guys, Ellis and Hank. They made me so mad. I've been avoiding posting my thoughts because I have very little that's good to say, but I suppose that's the point of a discussion.

Alright here goes nothing, Minor Spoilers ahead.

Now that I've had time to actually formulate what I'm going to say, I'll try to keep my anger down to a minimum.

I went into this book with high hopes because I loved Water for Elephants which is by the same author.

Let's start with the things I liked:
2nd half of the book Maddie, Scotland, Anna, Meg, Angus, and Angus' dog. That's it.

The two American guys, Ellis and Hank. I hated them. I couldn't stand it when they talked, I couldn't stand it when Maddie was talking about them, and I hated the way Maddie just went along with every horrible thing they wanted to do. I honestly had to stop myself from skipping the parts of the book where they were talking. I really wanted to shake Maddie and ask her why she thought that this was how people were supposed to act. I mean who in their right mind gets on a boat and goes to Scotland in the middle of a war?!? I don't care what kind of 'honor' you have at stake, that's really really really stupid.

Things get better when they arrive in Scotland, sort of. Mostly because we are introduced to the characters in the book that I loved. Hank and Ellis are still annoying and not smart, and it takes Maddie a bit to realize that perhaps Ellis isn't the best man for her.

Meg and Anna were my favorite characters. I honestly wish the book had been about Maddie taking a journey to Scotland, alone, to figure out if she really wanted to be married to the dude she's married to, kind of like a self discovery book. I feel like that would have been a lot better. The hospitality that Meg and Anna showed Maddie, once they figured out she wasn't like her husband was so sweet.

I would have believed the Maddie/Angus story if they didn't say "I love you with all my heart" right after doing it for the first time and if they had any kind of interaction before that. It felt like a one night stand that could have possibly turned into a thing given the proper amount of time. Insta love is one of my biggest bookish pet peeves.

The end frustrated me so much. It was as if Ms. Gruen got tired of writing this particular story and decided to end it in the most convenient way possible. There could have been so much more to this story I think. I was overall disappointed and not very impressed.

Katelyn wrote: "Alright here goes nothing, Minor Spoilers ahead.

Now that I've had time to actually formulate what I'm going to say, I'll try to keep my anger down to a minimum.

I went into this book with high..."

Yes! I had so many feels with this book and not necessarily good ones that I wasn't sure really what to say. I felt the same frustrations with Maddie in the beginning as well. I agree that maybe a different approach to the book might have been better, such as the self-discovery route. One of the things that bothered me was that seemingly unrealistic things kept happening. All of these bad things coincidentally happened on the same day. Then things regarding Ellis magically happened to work out just like that. Oh but then look at that, everyone had a happy ending. I think you said it best, it seemed like she got tired of writing this story.

Heather wrote: "Katelyn wrote: "Alright here goes nothing, Minor Spoilers ahead.

Now that I've had time to actually formulate what I'm going to say, I'll try to keep my anger down to a minimum.

I went into thi..."

Oh I forgot to add that I was really excited about the story after reading the Prologue because I though that we were going to be following someone related to the people mentioned in that chapter of the book, but instead we follow three not so great Americans. My disappointment started there.