I echo TIS' statement that it was a decent book but nothing special. It took me over a month to read - it never held my interest in a riveting manner.
What I liked:
1) The surprise of having Tessio start the book and his whacking
2) I was surprised by Francesca's ending storyline. All that stuff leading up to it was pretty lame.
3) Hagen whacking out those 3 guys
4) The plane crash
5) Letting Geraci escape at the end. If this book was supposed to be a bridge b/w GF and GFII, then Michael needed to be looking over his shoulder. His "victory" was not complete with the Family and by losing Kay & the children.
6) Kay accusing Michael of whacking Jules for performing the abortion
7) Tom speaking his mind to Michael
What I disliked:
1) the continual rehashing of the 1st book (i.e. I'm paraphrasing: Hagen said that there's just some things you do and then never think about again.) There were way too many instances of this for a book. A writer does not need to "catch up" for his audience like a movie. The author should have realized that the majority of readers had already read Puzo's Godfather, thus having no need to re-explain things.
2) the Fredo storyline
3) having a character named Fuckface was just too corny
4) having the abortion be a miscarriage
5) why was Francesca married to Billy? What happened to Gardner Shaw?
6) If you've read the alternate script of GFII, then why wasn't reference made to Tom & Sandra having an affair?
7) Michael sitting down to a picnic