Customer Reviews

Big Girls Don't Cry

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY by Brenda Novak
October 9, 2005

Amazon rating 4/5

"This has got to be one of the juiciest Harlequin Superromances I've ever read. BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY is the story of two women who discover they are married to the same man. Reenie and Elizabeth both feel happily married. The one thing that makes them discontented is that their husband, Keith O'Connell, spends two weeks of each month working away from home.

It's Elizabeth's brother, Isaac Russell, who notices that something does not add up. While discussing a major car accident on the freeways of Sacramento, where Keith supposedly worked two weeks out of the month, Isaac notes that Keith says it had no impact on his commute. Isaac can tell that Keith is lying, but why? Isaac would not have thought twice about it, except he accidentally sees Keith at the airport in Los Angeles, when Keith is supposed to be in Arizona. Isaac decides to miss his own flight to follow Keith and find out what's really going on with his brother-in-law. What he discovers is beyond belief. Keith was on his way to see his other wife, Reenie, in Idaho. When Elizabeth learns the truth, and is told that Keith wants to stay with wife number one, she makes an impulse decision. She and her two children move to Idaho to be closer to daddy." Complete review at BookLoons dot com. - M Lofton for BookLoons.

A pager turner! One of my favorite Superromances this year so far.

I've now read and enjoyed several books by Brenda Novak. She has terrific potential in both the romance and suspense genres. But in Big Girls Don't Cry, she failed to tap the potential.

Great story idea...unfortunately, the dishonest, bigamist Keith NEVER got his come-uppance...instead, he got a low-stress job, access to all of his children AND still managed to exert control over both of his "wives" (to one extent or another) through most of the story.

I felt pitifully sad for Elizabeth throughout the book. She was portrayed as ALWAYS being second choice-to both her "husband" and her own brother! I didn't realize while reading this that there's another book focusing on Elizabeth. In fact, the ease with which (beautiful sweet perfect wonderful) Reenie found happiness-with no concern for Elizabeth-really annoyed me. I found it difficult to be happy for her. Maybe I'll feel better if I read Elizabeth's story.

Unable to believe the number of business trips his brother-in-law Keith O'Connell makes to Dundee, Idaho, Isaac Russell decides to serendipitously follow him. Isaac is stunned to find that Keith has another wife with three young daughters besides his sibling Liz.

Forced to make a decision, Keith chooses his Idaho family for the sake of his offspring. When his despondent sister Liz decides to follow her "husband" to Idaho, Isaac does likewise to insure she does not break the law by doing something stupid or even try to do something stupider like getting her "husband" to come back to her. Complicating matters at least in Isaac's mind is his attraction to Keith's schoolteacher first wife Reenie Holbrook, who uses her maiden name.

Big girls do cry when they suffer broken hearts as both women do when the truth about Keith's bigamy surfaces. However, Reenie recovers faster perhaps because she has the kids to take care of (no time for breakdowns) and the interest of Isaac to help her move on while Liz feels abandoned and betrayed first by her two-timing spouse and then her brother. She and the kids provide the fresh extended look at the impact of bigamy.

Harriet Klausner

Big Girls Don't Cry is one of Brenda Novak's earlier Dundee series books. I hadn't read it when it came out, but I did just recently and found it hard to put down. She creates well-drawn, realistic characters and the protagonists in Big Girls Don't Cry is no exception.

How do you live through a lie? What happens when you discover the man you love, the husband of your children, is also a husband and father to another family two states away?

When Isaac Russell finds it hard to believe how many business trips his brother-in-law makes to Phoenix and how upsetting it is to his sister Liz, Isaac decides to check into the situation, especially after he spots his brother-in-law Keith O'Connell at an airport headed to Boise, Idaho. Isaac follows, and can't believe his eyes when Keith drives an SUV to the small town of Dundee, parks in the drive of a suburban house and is warmly greeted by another woman and three kids.

Reenie Holbrook married Keith, her high school sweetheart, settled down and began a family, but for the past nine years, her husband's business travel takes him away from home two weeks out of each month. Reenie wants to buy a farm and settle down, but Keith balks. Isaac confronts Reenie with the truth about her marriage and her husband's bigamy. He's hoping Reenie is a typical "other woman", but he finds her as much a victim of the deception as his sister Liz.

When Liz discovers the truth about her marriage, she separates from Keith, who apparently is choosing Reenie over her and moving to Dundee. Liz decided to move to Idaho to allow her children access to their father and Isaac goes along to make sure his sister is protected. He doesn't plan on falling for his sister's rival.

Ms. Novak has penned a sympathetic story showing the devastating impact of an irrational act on many lives. Liz is the hardest hit because she is the outsider, and her brother's interest in Reenie seems another betrayal. It's an adult novel in that bigamy is an adult situation, but Ms. Novak creates an enjoyable story of friendship and redemption in this well-written romance. I look forward to Liz' story, The Other Woman.

Reenie and Elizabeth O'Connal think that they have good lives. Reenie lives in Idaho with her three daughters and Elizabeth lives in California with her son and daughter. The only problem is that while they do not know it they are married to the same man-Keith O'Connal.

Then one day Liz's brother Issac sees Keith going onto a flight to Boise when he had told Elizabeth he was in Phoenix. Issac then discovers the double life that Keith had been hiding.

Both Reenie and Elizabeth are devistated. Elizabeth decides to move to Dundee, Idaho with her brother and children in tow looking for some closer. While Reenie does not want to like Issac there is an unmistakeable chemistry that pulls the two of them together.

What happens between Reenie and Issac as well as Reenie and Elizabeth and their kids? Read Big Girls Don't Cry.

I wanted to read this book and our local library didn't have it. This book arrived quickly and in excellent condition. I'm glad I ordered it online.

For a Harlequin this was a pleasant afternoon of reading. Too bad I didn't have the insight to know beforehand that this was book #6 in the Dundee, Idaho series. I think it would be best if you try to read them in order.

A Baby of Her Own #1
A Husband of Her Own #2
A Family of Her Own #3
A Home of Her Own #4
A Stranger in Town #5
Big Girls Don't Cry #6
The Other Woman #7
Coulda Been a Cowboy #8

Keith has a wonderful loving wife Reenie, two kids and a home in the country. So why then does he mess around with Elizabeth and get her pregnant? Oh, and he never tells her he is currently married. His logic is that he'll marry her also, have another child and buy another house. Of course, now he is stressed and it affects both marriages. For such a smart man he is one brick shy of a load.

Isaac, Elizabeth's brother, suspects that there is something wrong with Keith and he intends on finding out what it is. So he heads to Dundee, ID, thinking that the 'Other Woman' is no good. He soon finds out that not only is Reenie sweet, kind and Keith doesn't deserve her but his sister is the Other Woman. The story builds from there.

This book had me feeling sorry for both women- they each loved Keith so much and neither suspected that he was a bigamist. If nothing else, I was happy that Reenie and Isaac found each other.

Big Girls Don't Cry By: Brenda Novak

Sometimes Mr. Right couldn't be more wrong...

Thanks to a devastating revelation about her husband, Reenie Holbrook's once-perfect marriage is over. For eleven years she had the life she wanted---and now it's gone.

Sometimes Mr. Wrong couldn't be more right...

Reenie decides that the first step in recovering from her ordeal is to find work; after all, she has three young children to support. She's thrilled when she lands a job at Dundee High teaching history---until Isaac Russell, the man who triggered the unraveling of her marriage, accepts a temporary position teaching science. Then she's tempted to quit. Reenie doesn't care if the whole town admires Isaac...and she won't admit that, secretly, she admires him, too. She doesn't want to see him or his sister in "her" town.

But a friendship with the most unlikely woman leads to a relationship with the most unlikely man...

----

I liked almost everything about this book, except the way Liz was written. I'm sorry but that woman acted like she was the only victim, and she wasn't. She acted like she had every right to move to where Reenie lived, and she didn't. She didn't once think of how this would effect her kids or Reenie's kids. IMO that was all about getting back at Keith. And she acted like she was the one who had to deal with it the most. Reenie was in the same situation, worse because they were married longer and because she had 3 kids. If I had been Reenie I would have either moved or confronted Liz. Liz almost seemed obsessed at some points. Like she was the only injured party. She had no right to move to Idaho. And she also had no right to make it seem like Reenie wasn't going through the same thing she was. In fact Reenie handled that a hell of a lot better then Liz, and Reenie was married to Keith longer. I was very disgusted with the way Liz was written, and I won't be reading or buying, "The Other Woman," Liz's story. I can only imagine how horrible she'll be in her own book.

The way this was written it almost seemed like the author had some resentment toward the situation, making one wife to be the victim, and the other to blame. I'm disgusted with this book. The only upside was Isaac and Reenie's relationship, which Liz tried to stop as well. I found it funny how Liz was written as the wronged party, yet slept with Keith AFTER finding out about his first wife.

Other things that were annoying if not puzzling, were how quick Keith quit his ever demanding job. Amazing how he could do that when he was caught but not before. Or how Reenie's mother, who should have been supportive, apparently didn't understand the situation enough to be on Reenie's side. How could a mother push her daughter towards a man who cheated, married, and had kids with another woman for 9 years? Some mother. And on top of all that let's not mention that Keith was sleeping with them both, Reenie one half of the month and then Liz the other. That is disgusting beyond words.

Either way, I'm glad I'm done with this book and will not be buying Liz's story. I loved all of Brenda Novak's previous books, but this one is just horribly written.

I have read just about every one of my mom's books and Big Girls Don't Cry is one of my very favorites!