Seventeen Against the Dealer

At 21, Dicey Tillerman thinks she has enough knowledge to become a success. Dropping out of college a year earlier to begin a boatbuilding business, Dicey finds out the hard way that she doesn't have nearly enough life experience to take on such an enormous venture singlehandedly. But she keeps persisting, determined to make her lifelong dream a success...even if it means ignoring the needs of her family, and those of her boyfriend Jeff, whom she always thought would be there for her, no matter what. Dicey should have learned by now that no one ever has to stay anywhere...

Seventeen Against the Dealer was much better than I expected. I read this book to do a report on, and it is very easy to understand, very easy reading. I was able to relate to each of the characters, especially Dicey and Maybeth. This book had something for almost everyone. A little suspence, a little adventure, and a little romance. If you are like me, I can picture a grandmother refusing to be taken to a doctor, eventhough she is near death. If you have read any of Voigt's books, read this one. It does get better after the 2nd chapter!

Cynthia Voight never ceases to amaze, in this closing book to the ongoing Tillerman saga. Dicey gets a hold of her life in this installment, but shows how growing older makes life less easy to control. I recommend this to anyone who has read the other Tillerman books and wants to finish it. I only wish it were longer, and gave the ending more room. Truly amazing in all aspects. It is just a good book.

The four Tillerman children are almost all grown up. They almost desert their grandmother, leaving her to get sick. Priorities change, but they are eventually for the better. These changes bring the family close together once again. This book is very well written. It shows the power Cynthia Voight has to create life like situations and solve them with life like resolutions. This book is qiute life like, as if Cynthia Voight herself were in a situation similar to this. They were always living on the edge. The whole family was always prepared for any advantage or disadvantage coming their way at any point in time. This book is very good and challenges the mind at all times. The situations that the Tillermans are in are always on the edge of seperating the whole book from reality and fiction.

I have loved all the book in the Tillerman cycle for years. No one that I know reads them seriously, so I've never been able to find out: is Cisco really Francis Verricker, Dicey's father? I would reccommend this book to anyone, even someone that has not read the series. It is a beautiful story about learning that self reliance is not always the best path.