Around the Next Corner [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Wrenn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

Nice Story

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: NAL Accent; Large Print edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739471759
• ISBN-13: 978-0739471753
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,996,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Wrenn does a beautiful job demonstrating both the joy and the heartache in raising guide dogs., January 28, 2007

By 

C. Dionne "Chrissy Dionne" (Cloverdale, OREGON USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Around the Next Corner (Mass Market Paperback)

Like many housewives, Deena Munger spends her days doing chores and taking care of her family which they take for granted. Somewhere along the way, she lost any semblance of being an individual. Hopes, dreams, even her personal preferences have all taken a back seat to the needs and desires of her family. Deena realizes that she's become non-existent as an indivdual and is desperately unhappy. Who'd have guessed that an afternoon eating corn pops and watching Oprah would be the catalyst that changes her life as well as the lives of those around her?

Heloise is a yellow Labrador puppy. She's only ten weeks old when she comes to live with Deena and her family. Heloise is little more than a ball of energetic fur with the honor of having been selected to be part of the K-9 Eyes for the Blind program. For approximately fourteen months, Heloise will live with the Mungers in their neat orderly world and ensure that life will change for them all in ways they never expected.

While Deena is trying to retrieve their Persian cat from the pots and pans cupboard she begins to wonder how her life turned out this way. She's a dog person, so why is she living in a cat world? She's even scrubbing the floor grout with a tooth brush. Sex has become a Saturday morning scheduled event, which she now has no interest in and does her best to avoid. Deena's disappeared, in her place is a shell of a woman who caters to the whims of her husband, children, and even the cat. However, none of them ever return the favor. Her feelings do not matter in the big scope of things, or do they? She couldn't forget the episode of Oprah she'd watched about `using your life.' After yet another day of ceaseless demands and the mundane existence that her life has become, Deena made a decision. She spent some time researching about getting involved in the K-9 Eyes for the Blind program, and even interviewed for raising a dog - all before telling any of her family about her desire to do so. None of them are pleased, it will disrupt their lives and they all know it. For once Deena is going to satisfy her own desires, and the family will just have to accept her decision. Will Deena's decision be the final straw in Neil and Deena's already crumbling marriage? Maybe it will provide a stepping stone to help breach the walls they've built between them.

I am so impressed with Elizabeth Wrenn's writing. She alternately had me laughing and crying all the way through AROUND THE NEXT CORNER. It's a poignantly sweet tale and many married women will be able to relate to Deena. Yes, Deena is menopausal, but I am not and I can easily see myself in her shoes. The chaos that seems to rein when Heloise joins the family is absolutely hilarious. I have visual images of this overweight cat living on top of a refrigerator and this puppy gleefully terrorizing it. Ms. Wrenn does a beautiful job demonstrating both the joy and the heartache in raising guide dogs. In the midst of all the pandemonium, Deena learns a few things about herself, life, and love which may just help glue her life back together.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too bad we can't give 10 stars . . ., July 21, 2007

By 

Patricia Kay "author and avid reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Around the Next Corner (Mass Market Paperback)

Since others have done a synopsis of this book, I won't. Instead I'll say it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's been on my to-be-read shelf for a while now -- I buy so many books I can't read them all -- but I finished a book yesterday and began this one last night. I've already read half of it. I simply didn't want to turn out the light and go to sleep. It's beautifully written, funny, touching, and filled with so many truths about life, love, and being a woman. I was laughing out loud, to the point my husband wanted to know what was so funny. Bravo, Ms. Wrenn. I hope you write many more books. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Borrow it from the library, May 25, 2007

By 

coyote (Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Around the Next Corner (Paperback)

This was an OK book. Not bad, easy to read, even made me cry in a few spots. But, it's not great. I think it is a nice mid-life crisis book for women and I love the central part with the dog. I wish that life and marriage were as easy to fix as was the case for the main character in the book - but still the storey is nice. A good weekend read if you're looking for something not too heavy and also isn't a bodice ripper.