Customer Reviews

Bitter Sweet

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have very conservative beliefs and I'll admit after reading some of the bad reviews on this book I expected to hate this story. Surprise, I loved it! LaVyrle Spencer has never let me down. This book moved me. I felt for the characters. I agree that Maggie and Eric should not have started their affair while Eric was still married, but I felt the author did a good job of making them realize this. These characters grew as people throughout this story and they paid dearly for their mistakes. I hate when a book seems to have bad people in it just to excuse bad behavior from other characters. I didn't get that from this book. Yes, Nancy wasn't a good person and she didn't love Eric (Nor was she faithful to him),but the story didn't use this to excuse his mistakes. I really sympathized with Katy. I was very self-righteous when I was her age. I saw things only in black or white. I think she should have tried to understand what her mother was going thru and offered her support if not her approval. We are raised to offer our children unconditionally love, I think as parents we should get the same whenever possible. I loved the character of Anna Severson. She put Eric in his place whenever he needed it, but was supportive of her son as well. I could understand Maggie's dad doing what he did at the end of the story. It was great to see that Roy was so supportive of Maggie when she needed him most. I think this story is about two people that fell in love and didn't handle things in the best way, but they still deserved happiness.

Eric and Maggie were high school sweethearts in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. They drifted apart in college, and she ended up happily married in Seattle, he back home running his father's fishing boat. After Maggie's husband dies, she decides to move home and open a bed and breakfast - and all hell breaks loose. Eric's already floundering marriage crumbles under the weight of their rekindled mutual attraction. A moving portrait of families in conflict, love, adultery and betrayal.

I have read many of LaVyrle Spencer's books, but this one keeps me coming back again and again, picking up another nuance each time.

Anyone who ever loved and lost someone when he or she was in high school, will be drawn to this story. The author presents an interesting scenario. What if we had a second chance at having a relationship with our high school sweetheart? I liked the idea of love transcending time and getting a second chance with the one who got away, but I wish that Eric wasn't married. Since he is married, it would have been better for Maggie and Eric to just have a friendship. I liked the grief issues that Maggie was facing in the beginning of the story. I thought Ms. Spencer handled those scenes very well. If you like Ms. Spencer's other novels, this one won't leave you disappointed.

This is NOT a Book for prudish people, or the un-educated. It is a wonderful work of fiction by Mrs. Spencer.

It is a very quick and good fictional read. No reason for any one who is so up-tite with them-selves or life to get their panties in a bunch.

I recommend also Her book Morning Glory, wonderfully written.

...unless that is, you love Door County, Wisconsin, especially 20-25 years ago before it became REALLY overrun with tourists. This book was recommended to me many years ago simply because it is set in Door County, a magical part of Wisconsin I know very well.

The plot is simple: A 40-ish widow returns to her home town to start a bed-and-breakfast inn in a charming old Queen Anne house and finds herself again attracted to her high-school sweetheart. Although the characters are fairly well fleshed out, there isn't much depth here. The characters are just to pat, too stereotypical. That's not to say it's a shallow book. It just doesn't have much weight, and the thoughts of its characters aren't very complex. It's not as flighty as "chick lit" (lit? You call it literature? How about escape from life?).

However, the book drew me because I knew the setting and because it its a great representation of life in Wisconsin in the 1980s, in a way.

Yes, the heroine does become pregnant by her ex-boyfriend while he is married to someone else. Obviously from reading some of the other reviews, many people find that distasteful. I wonder if that was the reaction 20 years ago when the book was published, or if it's a reaction that could only happen in today? Not a choice I would make, but it's only a story, readers.

LaVyrle Spencer was very popular in the 90s because she understood and spoke to the average Midwestern woman. Her plots are usually good. I just wish her characters had more meat on their bones.

I know that this is a book about a adultery, but it is also about a first love and finding love again. I think that the villian is the "wife" and that makes it easy to pull for these forbidden lovers. Really good romance.

Here we have a romance that involves a triangle, the man, the wife and another woman. How will it all end? Where do our sympathies lie? This is a thought-provoking story with lots of twists and turns, filled with heart-wrenching suspense. Interesting story!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three

The first time I read Bittersweet, I borrowed it from the library. I borrowed it 2 more times and then finally bought my own copy. I loved this book and most of Ms. Spencer's books. Yes, sometimes she's predictable, but I laughed and cried everytime I read Bittersweet. I was introduced to this wonderful author by a dear friend and now have the pleasure of passing on her books to my daughter, when she's older, and my mother. The romance genre lost someone special when Lavyrle Spencer put down her pen.

This book didn't sound appealing to me but for some reason I picked it up and started reading. I couldn't put it down. Two days later at 2:30am I finished it and pressed the book tightly to my chest. I already miss Eric and Maggie, Katy, Roy, Suzanne . . .

It has been a long time since I laughed out loud when reading a book. Spencer put these characters together well. Not only did I laugh with them, I also felt their pain and heartbreak.

There are holes in the plot and it's fairly predictable, but I found myself wanting to be carried on this journey. I couldn't wait to read what I knew was going to happen.

I did look for some elements of the plot that magically disappeared (the grief group, the suicidal girl, etc.) but I soon let it go.

This isn't a deep book. It isn't filled with metaphors and age-old wisdoms, but it contains fairly realistic people with realistic problems. For all practical purposes I shouldn't have enjoyed it. I am much younger than the age group of its characters. I was an English major in college and love the deep discussions books can evoke and I generally don't like flowery writing. Even so, I can appreciate it for the fact that it's easy to read. It's an escape I will remember. I can't say that about any other "escapist" novel I've ever read.

I loved this book. It helped me see that there is beauty in her writing. It doesn't have to be deep and metaphorical. Bitter Sweet touched me; it renewed my faith in romance.

For years I've been searching for a romance writer who is even comparable to Judith McNaught. Well...I just found her. This book was touching and sweet and yes...bitter. Love, loss, human frailty, and the will to survive were all emotions realistically tapped into in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be checking out everything else LaVyrle Spencer has written.