Customer Reviews

At Home in Covington (Ladies of Covington)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joy upon joy! They are here again! I cannot even begin to explain how happy I was to see this book. Grace, Hannah, and Amelia step gracefully back into our lives with this fifth installment of the Covington series. Our Ladies are now aging a bit, but that is part of what makes the Covington stories so realistic. It allows us to identify with The Ladies more as old friends than as characters in a novel. Amelia, the youngest of the trio, is now 70-years old. Grace, our loving grandmother figure, is 71-years old, and Hannah, the most robust of the three, is 75-years old. If you read the first book of this series, you will surely remember that they ran away from a nursing home to establish a life with each other in Covington. Hey, that is true intestinal fortitude!

As the story begins, Charles (Grace's son Roger's longtime companion) has recently died from AIDS. The graveside funeral service is being held in December with the Ladies and a small party of mourners in attendance. Although most of their friends and neighbors had not really known Charles, they gathered at the graveside out of love and respect for Grace.

Joan Medlicott's descriptive first lines set the scene:

"The wind moaned as it skirted the white clapboard wall of Cove Road Church and snaked between the headstones in the small cemetery, tweaking women's coats and burrowing with stealthy fingers between men's gloves and wrists."

Hannah Parrish's friend, Max, is pressing her to set a wedding date. This would be a marriage between friends for convenience only, and something about that rubs our Hannah the wrong way. Then, unexpectedly, Hannah received a mysterious diary from her past in the mail. This diary's contents have the power to turn Hannah's life upside down. It was written by a woman whose husband had been madly in love with Hannah many years ago, and with whom Hannah had a lengthy affair. Hannah had not realized that the wife even knew about the long ago affair, and her heart is tortured by the woman's entries in that diary.

Amelia senses unease among the Ladies, and suggests that they all take an exotic Caribbean cruise to raise their spirits. She has brochures at the ready, and the Ladies finally agree. What an amazing time the three ladies had on their cruise can best be explained by saying that it was everything they had dreamed it would be, and more, as each of our Ladies indulged in her favorite shipboard pastime - dancing, gambling, and introspection.

Upon returning from their cruise, the Ladies have wonderful adventures to tell, but there is a conflict brewing between Amelia and Hannah that has the ability to dissolve their living arrangements and disrupt their long-standing friendships.

This book is filled with everyday life, as it weaves itself around family members and the problems that are faced by young and old alike. For instance, Grace learns more than she wants to know about modern dangers, as her young protégé, Lucy, becomes the victim of an Internet predator at her middle school. Of course, our Ladies and their friends all rally to Lucy's rescue. When Grace continues to ignore her diet, she lands in the hospital and comes to realize that she must accept the reality of her diabetes and face that problem head on. Then we have Amelia, who must contend with jealousy as Roger begins to monopolize the time of her young photography companion. Finally, new happiness enters the Ladies' lives when Hannah's pregnant daughter has a beautiful baby boy, giving them all cause to rejoice as this child becomes part of their extended family. Then, when Hannah learns to accept her past for what it was, she is able to set a wedding date with Max.

Joan Medlicott is masterful with the art of creative writing. Her timely use of metaphors, similes, and personification enhances the reader's enjoyment of her stories. These tools deliver startlingly clear images to the reader, thereby making the text more enjoyable and comprehensible. Mental images can often transport readers to a place where they can grasp what the author's message truly is and more readily identify with the story's characters. This is Ms. Medlicott's forté.

*****At Home in Covington is very highly recommended reading. This book is not only for those people who like what some refer to as a "gentle read" (oh, how those words annoy me), but also for the many people who simply enjoy good literature and fascinating stories about human nature in everyday life. At Home in Covington, like the complete Covington Series, is a winner!*****

Reviewed by Ruth Wilson for Huntress Reviews.

This is a well written novel with our friends the "Ladies of Covington". It is very true to life but I found it too realistic! This isn't the "cozy " story the others in the series have been. When I read a book like this I read it to escape from my problems but in this book it's impossible to escape! The tender moments are few and hard to find!

Roger Singleton sadly calls his mother Grace to inform her that his long time companion Charles is dying. Grace always liked the kind Charles and immediately flies up from North Carolina to Pennsylvania to help her son cope and to say her good byes to his nice soul mate. He tells Mother Singleton to watch over her son, as he is worried about how Roger will be once he is gone.

When Charles dies, Grace's companion Bob Richardson and her two pals Amelia DeClose and Hannah Parrish arrive for the funeral. Grace has her own health problems as she suffers from diabetes, but as a southerner who loves sweet tea, only sugar counts. Hannah receives an old diary that provides her information about her deceased beloved Dan. Amelia suggests they need to get away and recommends a cruise to the Virgin Islands, which they do and enjoy. Now they must return to their home to get on with their lives.

The latest entry in the Covington series is a fine tale starring wonderful protagonists struggling with mortality that hits home to the three geriatric friends, but especially Grace. The story line reads like a gentle summer breeze in spite of the final days of the pleasant loving Charles. Fans of the series will enjoy this comforting tale that provides solace for those who do not need any action inside a placid story line.

Harriet Klausner

In this fifth installment of the series, the ladies are well settled into their new home after their original one burned. As usual there are problems. Hannah and Amelia begin to bicker, Hannah receives an upsetting diary which brings up past sorrows, and Grace is grieving over a death. The ladies go on a cruise, but they return to the same problems after their vacation is over. There are some things to celebrate, such as the birth of a baby and a wedding date being set. In my opinion, the subplots concerning Grace's young friend, Lucy, are a bit awkward and seem out of place, and the one in this book is no exception. I feel that the books are popular because they show that senior citizens can still lead active and useful lives and the characters comprise a warm and intertwined extended family. There is a lack of literature written for and about this age group and these books fill that need.

I purchased this book for my book club. It is the second book of this series that I have read. I regret not reading them in the proper sequence but one reads what the club selects. It was just as enjoyable as the first book. I plan to read the rest of them.

A friend recommended the Covington books when the topic of older women sharing homes came up. While this is hardly literature - and someone needs to wake up a lazy editor - it's darned good story telling. Many of the issues with which the ladies contend are issues of modern life in a small town (where I also live, in the South), of growing older. These affect an increasing number of Americans so no wonder the stories are attractive. Medlicott fashions three believable protagonists along with their friends, family, and the townsfolk. They are people with whom one enjoys spending time. There's no racing heart here, no tension of a "whodunit," just fulfilling time spent with a book. It's wonderful reading before going to bed. Idyllic, yes. For those of us who have enough misery in our lives just turning on the daily news, this is a reprieve. Nothing sinful in that! I am now reading the last of the series, having read all the books consecutively and I look forward to the latest. What a productive writer Medllcott is - and that's part of the wonderful Covington mystique. She started at 64, something to emulate for an older person.

I've been very pleased with all the books I've ordered from Amazon.com. This last

book deserves a 5 star rating as well, for condition of book, prompt service and

ease in ordering. Thanks. June Frederking

Joan Medicott has done it again with another book about the Ladies of Covington. She continues her study of the three ladies whose lives have been changed by various circumstances though they still continue to live together and work out their problems.

I own and have read all of the Ladies of Covington books and absolutely love them! Granted, those not of "a certain age" may not find the books as riveting as I do, but that's okay - I don't particularly care for the books aimed at the younger market myself. It's just nice to find an author who treats older characters as real human beings with real needs and desires. Not everyone over 60 wants to spend their lives sitting in a rocking chair while the world passes them by. And, being set in North Carolina is a plus as well. Good reading.

In the beginning of this book with the three ladies, Grace has lost Charles, her son Roger's partner from AIDS. Charles was more like a son to her than her own Roger, and Grace is grieving deeply. Of course Roger is in despair too, and he and his mother have it out as they never have really connected on any deep level. Roger will eventually overcome his grief as he tries to seek out Mike as a partner which does not work for the best.

Lucy Banks, Grace's surrogate grandchild as she calls her is into really bad troubles when she gets into the computer in a chat room, coming across Ringo, a dangerous internet predator. Grace sees trouble immediately and reports it to the school where this happened in the first place. Miss Randall, the principal does not like Lucy, and is blaming her when in fact, the staff is to blame for not monitoring the computers. Grace then goes to Emily, Russell's wife who is an attorney and will work to solve this matter before everyone is in danger.

As a relaxing getaway from it all, the three ladies go on a relaxing cruise where they all have a good time, except for Hannah and Amelia, always at each other's throats. The tension sparks so badly between the two ladies, that Amelia feels she must go away for some time, and finds a place in Maine where there is a photography workshop. This hopefully will give her and Hannah the distance they always seem to need from one another.

Max is putting the pressure on Hannah full force to please set a wedding date soon. But Hannah does not feel ready to pursue this, especially when a diary mysteriously appears in the mail from Dan's wife, the man Hannah had an affair with many years ago. The author, Marion, writes with such open hatred for Hannah, and as Hannah reads, she is despondent over this.

Hannah's daughter Laura has had a baby son with Hank. She discovers how she absolutely hates being a stay-at-home mom, and cannot cope with being a mother. Hannah takes on much of the responsibilty for little Andy when she realizes her Laura's desparate need.

Bob and Grace still have their same arrangement. Later in the story, they have a bad car accident, and Grace realizes then that she must face her diabetes head-on.

Old Man, (Joseph Elisha), is not doing well at all and in very ill health. Lurina will soon have to face life alone again after Joseph has kidney failure that has gone on for a very long time.

These were the main story events in this book. Other smaller things were intertwined as well in this great book, and I look forward to Two Days After the Wedding, the next book in the series.