2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing, fun and surprising, 3-1/2 stars, September 1, 2008
This review is from: Falling Star (Paperback)
This book was a constant surprise, in a delightful way. Every time I thought the characters were dismissing deep emotions or weighty issues with some clever puns or banter, the author would suddenly use a metaphor or other turn of phrase to describe the underlying emotions and motivations in a way that you'd feel to your toes. It made for entertainment and pleasurable reading throughout.
The whirl of characters with odd names (except the dog, who probably had the most ordinary name of all: Nelson) came fast and furiously in the beginning as the relationships were established between Solley Rayner, her three children (Jed, Will and Della), her sister Janie, Janie's partner Marsha, and Marsha's good friend Gin Ito, all who will be staying at Janie's and Marsha's private beach house for some summer vacation. Solley is dealing with divorce from her roving partner Dan(ielle), and an impending custody battle, and has been beat down by Dan's unconcern, so is very hesitant to accept her attraction to Gin. Gin, for her part, is dealing with weighty emotions of her own, and throws herself into life with the children and the family as she experiences an emotional reawakening of her own.
The sisters' relationship is hilarious, and I am a sucker for family dynamics. There's also a third younger sister, Grace, who appears later. Apparently the Rayner sisters are notorious in their circles for their whip-crack changes of mood and firey tempers, and Gin wonders at Marsha's ability to navigate the rapids. I really liked how the characters in this book were allowed to have strong emotions, and to express them without the other characters taking everything entirely too personally, and without necessarily sparking an international incident with every raw outburst. They were human. They had faults. Sometimes they'd let it go, and sometimes they'd get in one another's faces. But they all also seemed to give the other party the benefit of the doubt. The author did a good job of portraying the messiness that is families, and the ties of love that bond the strong ones together despite everyone's foibles.
The writing and editing was quality. Overall the book was a lighter take on weighty issues. Motherhood, grief, relationships ending and beginning, paparazzi. It gave them their due, but also succeeded in showing that life can be good and move on from all that. It's only life, after all. An excellent book for vacationing or other escapism, and I look forward to further work from this author.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unrealistic, September 4, 2011
This review is from: Falling Star (Paperback)
A really short read, and it shows. It had no deep character or relationship development. Toward the end, it seemed more like a parody. If you want to read one of Gill McKnight's books, I recommend Ambereye instead.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Flat, February 13, 2010
This review is from: Falling Star (Paperback)
This popped up on my trading site and I had heard good things of Gill McKnight, though not this particular book.
I now know why ;) It's incredibly flat and soulless. It is billed a romantic adventure, but really, there's not a lot of romance in it. There is a lot of talk of sex and being horny (that word must be used a gazillion times in this novel), but feelings aren't really palpable. The characters are flat and sometimes caricature-like (especially the evil ex) and didn't engage me at all, thus I couldn't really bring myself to care about the lead romantic pairing. The dialog is supposed to be funny, but really often is just crude, I think the story is supposed to have a sitcom-like feeling to it, but some of the situations are just unbelievable and thus not funny to me.
I wonder how much of my dislike of this book, set in the movie-biz, stems from just having read Kallmaker's Stepping Stone, who manages to describe the business with well-rounded characters that are anything but stereotypical.
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