I received this book for x mas from my partner on a recommendation from the reviews on amazon. its now July .. and try as i might, i am still on chapter 3. i think the main problem is, Russell tried too hard with too many words to draw the charactersOK finally finished the book on august. This was one of the longest, dullest reads I have ever had. I didn't care about the characters in the slightest. I was looking forwards to this book, but I was greatly disappointed. Don't waste your money!