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What sophomore effort either pleased, or disappointed you? In your reply, please specify the title and whether you were satisfied, or left wanting.

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I would say the most successful author of sophomore efforts today has to be J. K. Rowling. After Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you would have thought she would top the bestseller list yet again with its successor The Chamber of Secrets, followed by two more bestsellers in the series. 

I would also include Nicholas Sparks' Message in a Bottle, the successor to The Notebook. I have all of his books and look forward to more as long as he keeps writing them.

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The Firm by John Grisham was even better than his first book, A Time To Kill. I thought it was better written and more gripping. I couldn't put it down!

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Fortunes Rock by Anita Shreve. I thought that was her best.

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I thorougly enjoyed Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, so when she came out with The Vampire Lestat, I couldn't wait to buy it. Boy, was I disappointed. Rice's second book did not come close to the first book. 

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Two Truths and A Lie: I was very happy with this book. I went in expecting to read another Traveling Light by Kittle (which I loved) and came out shocked and pleasantly surprised. Kittle has a great writing range. I look forward to her next book/surprise.
Bodies of Evidence by Cornwell: I was disappointed by this book. It wasn't as well written or suspenseful as Postmortem
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was not as well written or as colorful as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It seemed like more effort and interest was put into Wickedon the authors behalf.

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The following authors' second efforts were disappointments: Tracy Chevalier's Falling Angels doesn't compare to Girl with the Pearl Earring, Anita Diamant's The Red Tent is excellent; regretfully,Good Harbor is barely fair. Finder's High Crimes is 100 times better than The Zero Hour. This isn't anywhere close to the greatness of McCourt's Angela's Ashes. Brad Meltzer wrote a fine first novel, The Tenth JuristDead Even, his second, is a loser.Gap Creek by Robert Morgan is far superior to The Truest Pleasure. Too bad Rosamunde Pilcher never had another outstanding book after Shell Seekers. Wally Lamb is the exception: She's Come Undone followed by I Know This Much is True are both of equal excellence.

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When i read the Nora Roberts trilogy, I was very pleased. All of the books were excellent in the Three Sisters Island trilogy. So I guess, since I liked all three, that means that the sophomore lived up to the first book.

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One of the few authors to not disappoint is MJ Rose. Her work gets better and better. I have not been let down by an author's second work for the most part. I dont believe it is an author's job to find a recipe and churn it out, say the way Danielle Steele does. An author should explore and grow. And quite honestly, it has much more to do with the reader--where are they in their life, how are they feeling, what is going on personally or at work. Changes in our personal life determine whether a book speaks to us. I've read Henry and June by Anais Nin three different times. The first time, it changed my beliefs about a number of things. It influenced my journal writing. I took off to Paris for three weeks. I needed that then. The second and third, although it was the same book and the writing didnt change a word, did not have the same meaning. Reading it during these times, I was in a relationship and wasnt seeking the tortured artist to have a torrid affair with.

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Claire Messud's The Last Life, a mightily impressive second book.

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Preston Falls by David Gates. Great follow-up to Jernigan, his debut.

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I consider Caleb Carr's The Angel of Darkness to be one of the more disappointing sophomore efforts of the last ten years or so. Following the staggering success of his first mainstream novel The Alienist (which I've read half a dozen times and enjoy more with every reading), I thought Angel was a thin and disappointing retread of the places and people introduced earlier. I expected much more from the brilliant Carr than his sophomore effort, much the way Hannibal made for a poor follow-up to The Silence of the Lambs.