Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I usually read the reviews and let other people's opinions persuade whether or not I read a certain book. Well, this book got great reviews, some of the best I've seen. So, I did not hesitate to buy it. Along with the good reviews the synopsis sounded interesting. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! It took everything I had to make it through 50% (and that was with skipping pages at a time)! I thought it was boring, the characters were under-developed and unlikeable. The cover is misleading, as well. I was confused by the setting/time frame until I finally realized that this family has religious beliefs of which they choose to minimize their interactions with the outside world... which is fine, but I would've preferred this piece of information to be included in the synopsis. Afterall, it was the main cause of most of the conflict in the story. On a positive note, it was well written/edited, with very little spelling and grammar mistakes. Usually, this would encourage me to read another book from this author, but the story itself left me nervous to try again. Like I said before, I will think again before trusting reviews. Now I'm afraid that I've passed up some really good books due to untrustworthy reviews!