Almost Home by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've read enough of this author at this point to know what to expect.  And it was a perfectly enjoyable story about a poor woman who has no one to love her and a man who not only has a really bad father but also he was left at the altar, so we know HE's never going to love again.

The pursuit of her father, who is someone with the letter J in a town full of men with J names seems a bit of a needle in the haystack search, but Katherine doesn't let that stop her, and of course Zach, that poor guy who will never love again is someone she falls in love with the moment she meets him.  Sigh.  It is time to read some books with a little depth.  I think I've done in this genre and this author!  My eyes are getting tired from all that rolling!!!



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Long Drive Home by Will Allison

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I downloaded this book early in the morning and was done with it before noon.  So it was a quickie, but I could see where it could have been developed into much, much more.  The premise was believable -- that a series of events would lead to a catastrophe and then the choices one makes after that catastrophe can snowball into one huge mess.  That all worked, but Glen's wife gets a little manic about being sued and "losing it all," and without a second thought has him move out on the premise that if they are divorced, only HE can get sued.  Huh?

Their main focus in life is their daughter, Sarah, and yet the choice to blow her life to smithereens makes sense to Liz?  I think part of the problem is that she was jealous that Glen got to be the stay at home dad, while she had to go off to work in the city everyday.  And once she found an opportunity to take that from him, she did.  Which makes her into quite a bitch.  But was she?  I guess we'll never know!  It just more or less ends, not happily ever after.  In fact, I just finished it a few hours ago and I can't remember how it ends!  Not a good sign!!!



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Days of Gold by Jude Deveraux

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was thinking this was going to be more of a "bodice ripper" than it actually was.  I also wondered if I was reading a Gabaldon book, as the story carried hints of Jamie and Clare ... but only hints, because the author kept forgetting that her male character was scottish and he lost his accent after the first few chapters.  It was totally readable, and I won't say I didn't enjoy it, but there were gaps that didn't make sense and I found a few other aspects a little hard to swallow.  But I was looking for a bodice ripper so what was I expecting?!!!!



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Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a middle-aged woman who has spent her life following her husband from job to job, town to town, and believes that they have settled into their last house, which she is remodeling (albeit slowly) to suit her tastes.  But her husband, Jack, is a one-time football star who had to quit due to a blown knee, and due to taking drugs, loses his reputation as well.  So his main goal is to get back to the top again; and when he starts to see that happening, he loses her.  Because she doesn't want to follow him again.  She doesn't remember the "good old days" quite the same way he does.  He believes that since he was always faithful, he has upheld his end of the bargain.  But she remembers him drinking and socializing while she was at home with two small children.  In other words, now that the daughters have gone to college, she is ready to find herself again.  And he thinks she is just going to keep following.

They separate and she decides to see if she can rekindle her passion for painting.  And Jack follows her dream job to New York and ... discovers what she already knew.  The good old days weren't all that great. 

Great read!



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Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this story about a small town that has a feral child walk into its midst.  It received five stars because I couldn't put it down!  I wanted to know what had happened to the girl called Alice, and  thought the relationship between the psychiatrist who has her own set of issues and the girl was very believable.  I did have a few eye rolls with the romance, which was quick and based on they just knew they were meant for each other.  In other words, very little development, just assumption.  But it's not a romance, it is a story about sisters who had their own perspective of their childhoods and what type of adults they turned into; and what type of adults they became due to the child.



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So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had a hard time putting this book down.  I related to the main character, Claire, in that she is in her mid 40's and trying to reinvent herself.  Her daughter has left on poor terms, her parents are getting older and her father has been diagnosed with Parkinson's.  But she thinks she is all set -- she has met Rick and he's going to change everything.  They are going to move to Arizona (from NJ) and while he golfs she can take all the pictures she wants.  But then her daughter returns, pregnant, and her father takes a turn for the worse, and her mother chooses to move into a retirement home so that she won't be a burden to her daughter.  But that move sucks all hope from her and she begins to fade.  It was such a wonderful layering of generations and their problems, with no pat answers.  Just the hope that they will somehow figure it out.  So they all go Cape Cod, where Claire is taking a photography workshop, and she leaves her parents and daughter to figure things out while at the same time not completely abandoning them.  It was real.  The fiancee is quite obviously ill-suited as he wants nothing to do with her family, and then there is of course THE GUY ... but not overly done.  All in all I completely enjoyed this book and was sad to see it end.



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All She Ever Wanted by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As I continue with my Barbara Freethy-athon, she once again provides a tasty novel that delivers the story with the guy who isn't right for whatever reason -- sworn again to mindless models and never love -- but the story line was good, with characters who used met in college coming together when someone writes a novel about a tragedy that took place that split them all up until now.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the only reason it doesn't have five stars is because of the red-haired heroine and the I can never love hero -- just a little see through!



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Getting Rid Of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a good read; quite enjoyable, she gets the guy type novel!



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Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book caused a stir and at first I wasn't going to bother reading it, because I hate hyped up books like that.  But then I thought why not, so I read it.  My first impressions are that the whole Chinese/American way of doing things is a bit contrived.  Really all the author knows for sure is the way she was brought up, and the way she brought up her children.  She didn't interview hundreds, or even ten other Chinese families, and the same with American, to see how their methods stacked up.  So that turned me off right from the get-go -- the generalization that there is this distinct line between Chinese (or Asian) and American parenting.  Of course there are cultural differences, but the way she raised her daughters was ridiculous in my view.  She was obsessed with them playing their instruments above and beyond anything normal, and while certainly some of her ideas made sense (she would say we American mom's just cave in to our children and don't FORCE them to do the things that they should) she just took it to a level beyond extreme.  She had what most of us get -- the firstborn who will generally take on their parent's dreams for them, and the second child, who says **** you to such a notion.  Nothing Chinese/American there!  Just the way it is.

She admits towards the end that she has no capacity to have fun, and personally I found that to be just sad.  S A D.  I think what is most interesting is that this would be considered a book that would get published!  Not that it is poorly written, not at all.  But the subject matter could apply to ANY psychotic mother who is obsessed with pushing her children beyond normal boundaries.  I've seen American moms who fit this profile.  This is NOT a Chinese story.



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Home Front by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved, loved loves this book, which kept me up until 1:00 a.m. sobbing.  What I especially found intriguing is that the author is not a soldier, has no military background whatsoever, but did a really great job at this character's portrayal.  I loved the characters ... the relationships between them all were all very real.  I especially thought it was interesting that I related to her husband Michael's feeling about the war in Iraq and how he never really considered his wife's military background (before they were married) and then her continued involvement in it via the National Guard, as anything more than her hobby.  It comes out of nowhere for both of them when she is called to active duty and they both have to come to terms with what that means.  Michael has been feeling sorry for himself since his father's death and finds Jo's attempts at making him feel better through chin up platitudes to be worthless.  He goes so far as to say he doesn't love her any more, and the entire time she is gone, their marriage is at risk.  When she returns after being shot down, it is a long road back.

Good, good GREAT read!



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Sugar Nation: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Deadliest Habit And The Simple Way To Beat It by Jeff O'Connell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I expected this book to be more about what you could do about this Sugar Nation of ours -- not an expose on the author's personal experiences (and other than saying that what he does to control it only specifically works for him because he has a unique type of situation, he doesn't go any further than that in terms of how others in this sugar nation world can deal with it).  It was also severely bogged down in facts, studies, blah blah blah, that was just way over my head in terms of what I could even grasp. 

And the author is highly critical of the medical establishment and the ADA and anything really that is being done for diabetics in our Sugar Nation -- and it was weird that that didn't appeal to me because I agreed with it.  But I guess it was the lack of well, do this, or at the very least try this.  I am not sure what the message was at all!



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The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This gets five stars because it really drew me in.  I could relate to Joanna in that her family has left her alone full time, and while it is normal for your children to leave, to have your husband gone most of the time isn't any fun.  And she keeps thinking to herself, you can leave.  So she actually does, and as anyone knows, something like that takes a lot of courage.  And she goes to the last place where she thought she might be happy and finds a job and begins to build a new life for herself without feeling super sorry for herself.  I liked her strength.  In the meantime, we get the perspective of her husband Paul, who is at first just downright annoyed that she is "doing this," and then later, when he loses his job, discovers he didn't really like himself all that much either.  The ending wasn't trite either.

It was funny, I had the Nate Berkus show on while I was in the kitchen and this author was on the show wanting to have her office redone.  And something about her struck me, and I downloaded her book.  Definitely a good read.



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The Sweetest Thing by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I would finish one of her books and download another.  That is certainly a good sign and why I have given them all four stars.  But they are not necessarily books that I would recommend to people; which is kind of sad!  I think she needs to add a little depth to her characters and forego all this never going to love a woman/man thing.  Gets old.



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Ryan's Return by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am giving all of Freethy's books four stars because they kept me intrigued enough to keep reading.  She is very formulaic...the woman all have red hair, for example, the man always has some silly reason why he is never going to love again (no way, no how) but she is also a good story teller and manages to draw you in despite the fact you know EXACTLY what is going to happen, in a happily ever after kind of way!



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Golden Lies by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was my first book by this author, and I thought it was a good page turner.  I mean, it has the usual male character who WILL NEVER LOVE ANY WOMAN EVER ... and that gets a little old period, but the story itself is well thought out and do we ever really think that the man isn't going to fall madly, deeply, truly in love with the imperfect woman?  No, of course not.  I will admit right from the get-go that I continued to read her because her books were cheap.  Yes, that is true.



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