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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Miss America finds love,
By
This review is from: Don't Forget to Smile (Paperback)
I love Kathleen Gilles Seidel and have read most of her books. For people who aren't sure if they have read this one or not, it's about Victoria (Tory) a 'failed' Miss America (third runner up) who has to figure out who she is if she's not a beauty queen. Of course she finds a wonderful man (this is a romance after all!) but she also resolves her relationship with her mother and creates new relationships with her extended family. That's why I love this author - she grounds her characters in real worlds, made beautiful by love. You really hate to finish her novels. If you come across this one, grab it, it's a keeper!...
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another wonderful book by Seidel,
By grerp (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Don't Forget to Smile (Paperback)
Tory Duncan is an ex-beauty queen, a former competitor in the Miss America Pageant now disillusioned with the whole pageant industry and her role in it. Divorced and unsure of who she is, she finds herself in Oregon where she eventually opens a bar in Sullivan City, a working class logging town. With her organizational skills and hard work, the bar prospers and Tory begins the task of reshaping herself into a new and better person.
Joe Brigham is one of many, many Brighams in Sullivan City, and one of three Joe Brighams. He comes from a large family. Growing up, he was overshadowed by several of his siblings whose talents were more identifiable or traditional than his. He married early, had a child, and settled into the working class homeowner lifestyle his family had patterned. But when he becomes involved in the local union, his work there requires more of him, and his ambitions become larger than Sullivan City can accomodate, his wife objects and decides to divorce Joe and marry his more traditional cousin, Dennis, instead. Joe is left without anything but his job, trying to be more than a weekend father to his six-year-old son, Max. But it's tough. Tory first meets Joe when her bar is held up by an inept pair of armed robbers. No one, including the criminals, knows exactly how a robbery is supposed to go down, and Joe steps in when it looks like their nervousness might result in someone getting hurt. His skill as a mediator impresses everyone, especially Tory who looks past his background and pleasant but generic Brigham looks and sees a born leader. Someone truly interesting and dynamic. I first read Don't Forget to Smile in April of 2001 - six years ago. My primary impression of DFTS is that it was a little depressing. Enjoyable, but a little sad. I felt angry on Joe Brigham's behalf about the shaft he'd gotten in his divorce, and I also felt angry at Joe Brigham that he was planning to spend his son's adolescent years as a weekend and vacation dad in order to further his career ambitions. The idea that he would be able to leave in a few years, that his son would only really need his dad until he was 9 or 10, to me seemed selfish and unrealistic. However, while I still felt both of these things, my reading experience was much more positive this time around. Reading it again, I was surprised to find that the book has an overall very positive message about reconciliation and forgiveness. Don't Forget to Smile fits right in with the rest of the Seidel canon in that it's a low-key story with everyday drama. Readers who like spy stories and shoot-'em-ups probably wouldn't pick her books up, but the way Seidel draws her characters bottom up - from their family origins and dynamics to their interests, abilities and avocations - always makes them seem like living, breathing true-to-life people. Tory, with her disappointment in herself and her past choices, and Joe, with his frustration at being replaced as husband and father by a close relative: they have real, understandable problems the reader can relate to. One thing that differentiates Seidel's family dramas from those of other authors is that her characters often come from functional families, yet they still have problems. Tory's mother did not beat her, emotionally abuse or neglect her, but Tory still resents her for forcing her into beauty pageants throughout her childhood. Joe loves his family, but it doesn't stop him from resenting his older brother for being better at everything his working class world admires. Evil, uncaring abusive parents are easy to draw; it's harder to draw characters who succeeded in some ways but failed in others. But the result is far more interesting. Seidel again puts her spotlight on the spotlight. So many of her characters have limelight professions, and she does her research. There is a lot of detail here on beauty pageants: the good, the bad, and the just plain routine. She is pretty even handed portraying them as not very healthy for children or stage parents, but a good way for some secure young women to get scholarship money for college. One thing I noticed much more this time around was her portrayal of Max, Joe's son. Romance novel children are frequently precocious, but this is presented as cute and played for laughs. Max is a much more realistic child, a bright boy whose energy, intelligence, and frequent impatience make him both lovable and hard to deal with at times. Joe and his ex, Marianne, have to ride herd on him at times and it's an effort. That he's willing to make that effort and try to do it as often as possible makes him a good father and a true everyday hero. Tory's major conflict involves her mother and her lack of knowledge about how families work. Tory resents how her mother made pageants into their whole lives. It is only through her involvement with Joe, an objective observer with lots of hands-on family experience, that she learns how to see her mother in a different, more forgiving light. There is also a touching section in which Tory meets a family member she was never aware of that read quite a bit like an adult adoptee's reunion story. The ends are wrapped up a bit too quickly on this drama, but the overall effect is very nice. I'm not quite sure how to grade Don't Forget to Smile. It hovers right there between an A- and a B+. I enjoyed it thoroughly, more than I remembered doing, and I can highly recommend it to anyone. But it's not my favorite Seidel either. Is it unfair to grade on a curve measuring this one against other Seidel greats? Perhaps. All I know is, this one is worth seeking out. It's too bad it didn't get more exposure.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marvellous,
By A Customer
This review is from: Don't Forget to Smile (Paperback)
This is, without a doubt, the best romance I have ever read. Kathleen Gilles Seidel is a master at developing characters that feel real to the reader. I love everything that she has written, but this one stayed with me long after I read it the first (of many) times. Try to find it if you can
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