1 to 9 of 9
Review Date: 8/18/2012
Buried beneath the pitifully poor writing and the repetitive sex scenes is a story. I never thought I'd say it, but I do want to read the sequels to see what happens. What I don't understand is why an editor didn't tell this author what awful writing this is, and how to improve it... in fact DEMAND she improve it before it could be published. It's pathetic.
Review Date: 7/12/2011
This final novel by Belva Plain was bittersweet. She must have known she was nearing the end of her life as she wrote this book as a wrap up to her first (and finest, in my humble opinion) novel, "Evergreen". The book was set in the 1970's and early 80's and was a very easy and quick read involving Iris (daughter of Anna in "Evergreen") and her daughter, Laura. It was about love, and life, and family - all things that Belva Plain was known for in her novels. It wasn't exactly riveting, but still, it's a MUST READ for all of Belva Plain's fans, like myself.
Review Date: 9/7/2011
A while back I read this authors first book entitled Still Alice and absolutely loved it. That book was about a woman who developed early-onset Alzheimers Disease. Alice was a loveable main character and that made it easy to love the book. "Left Neglected" was about a 37 year old woman who was in a car accident and incurred brain damage which left her pretty much unaware of her left side. Unlike Alice, this main character, Sarah, was not particularly loveable. In fact, I didnt like this woman AT ALL through the first two-thirds of the book. I didnt even feel sorry for her when she got into the big accident. Why? Well, she was SO into herself and her high-powered job that she really had little time for her three kids or her husband. Maybe its just me. I think that having a job is great (obviously, as Ive had one for all of my adult life) but I also place more importance on family than this woman did. That aside, it WAS interesting to learn about the real neurological condition of left neglect. People really DO suffer from right-sided brain damage that leaves them unaware of anything on their left side. Medically, this was a very interesting book! Towards the end, I began to like Sarah more. She struggled with her disability, learned to love her family more, and faced hard decisions with more than the how would that affect my job mentality.
Review Date: 6/7/2019
This really deserves 4.5 stars, but I can't round it up all the way to 5 stars. That said, I TRULY enjoyed this BIG book (643 pages), but realize it won't appeal to everyone - even true fans of historical fiction. I think the reader needs to be interested in both the time period (late 1700's, early 1800's) AND in politics of the day. There is a LOT of politicking in this book, which was fine for me, but some will be bored with it. This is the first novel I've read by Stephanie Dray and oh my goodness, it was SO beautifully written! I will admit that the beginning captured me as we learned to know who Eliza Schuyler Hamilton was.... the middle part dragged just a little, but was still important to the story.... and the end was riveting! I learned SO MUCH about the early years of my country and definitely want to read more about this era in the future. If you enjoy American history, this book is fabulous. So glad I read it!!!
Review Date: 6/28/2014
I should first say that I do love Maureen Lee's books, I've read LOTS of them. Most of hers are historical novels, set in the 30's, 40's, and sometimes the 50's. However, this one is almost set in "modern day" but you sure wouldn't know it by looking at the cover! It's a deceiving looking cover, to make you think you are getting another of her lovely historical fiction novels. This book is set in 2001, in a small neighborhood in Liverpool. It was a good book, but not a great book. It reminded me ever so much of a Maeve Binchy novel (though not nearly as good!) where you gradually get to meet all the people in the neighborhood and see how they interact with one another. It was okay, and if you like Maureen Lee, you'll probably like this. I just kept comparing it in my mind to the incomparable Maeve Binchy and it simply didn't measure up.
Review Date: 5/6/2019
I believe I've read everything written by this author, however this book was a huge disappointment for me. When I sat down to dive in, I found, within the first 40 pages or so, a political agenda written in purposefully by the author. Who can possibly ignore her description of Hitler's rise to power - "He'd make Germany great again, a superpower like it once was. There would be jobs for all. They'd throw the non-Germans out. Limit immigration" -as a complete parallel to our current president? Okay, that's it for me. The author is using her novel as a platform - in a (not very) subtle way - for her political beliefs of today. That's fine, she can do that, but for me, I don't want to hear about her politics. I just wanted an interesting, entertaining book. We're being bombarded with political opinion from every angle these days - it's suffocating.
Review Date: 9/6/2015
Helpful Score: 5
There was once a great TV show about "nothing" -- Seinfeld. This book was essentially about "nothing" and while it kept my attention for the most part, I really cannot recommend it. Yes, it was very well written, but the content- everyday life of an everyday family - IMHO it was just not novel-worthy. I wanted to scream in frustration when, towards the end of the book where it SHOULD BE wrapping up, she starts the whole mostly boring story AGAIN from a different person's point of view.I had to skip over that. No way was I reading all that again, even from a different perspective. Maybe I should have read some reviews BEFORE I started to read it... but I wanted to form my own opinions, and that I have done. And they are not good.
Review Date: 1/12/2012
Helpful Score: 2
This book, set during WWII in England was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010. This is a UK prize for originality in writing for women authors. Knowing this, I plunged into the book, expecting greatness. What I found instead was mediocrity. The book did indeed follow a young girl, evacuated from London at the beginning of WWII, to the Yorkshire countryside. We also learned about her mother who was left in London, as well as all the folks at the country estate where little Anna lived during the war years. What we DIDN'T hear much about was WWII. That was a huge disappointment for me, as I really love reading/learning about life on the homefront during that devastating war. Essentially, this is a predictable romance novel - NOT what I was hoping for and certainly NOT what I was expecting. If you like romance set in the 1940's then this could be a book for you. Frankly, I was shocked that this book was actually shortlisted for the Orange Prize. In my humble opinion, it doesn't deserve the accolade.
Review Date: 11/22/2014
I don't usually read stuff set in the middle ages, but this book intrigued me. I really enjoyed most of this novel, learning a LOT about how life was back in the early 1300's, and the history of paper making. The ending was a bit predictable and weak, but this book was still enjoyable.
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