Francesca's Party [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727858238
• ISBN-13: 978-0727858238
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,884,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read in a long time, September 8, 2002

By 

Pamela Claughton (charlestown, ma United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francesca's Party: A Novel (Hardcover)

Well, I picked this up initially because the blurb on the jacket said that it was like Maeve Binchy. Then I read the first few pages and I was hooked. Because of this book, I did not get anything else accomplished all day! I just lost myself in it, and that has not happened in a very long time. If you like Maeve Binchy, you will LOVE Patricia Scanlon. She writes very real, warm characters, and you can even sympathize with the "bad" ones because they are so well developed and have reasons for their actions. She takes a fairly simple story, that of a woman who after 20 years or so of marriage is shocked to the core to discover that her faithful husband is cheating. How she deals with this and grows over the course of the novel is told in a riveting way....she keeps the reader turning pages, and given that this is not a suspense story, she keeps the tension high, so that you just need to know what will happen next.

I will be trying to track down her other books now as I guess she is pretty big overseas, but virtually unknown here. I do not recommend authors lightly.....this is a great, warm pageturner....read this book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great book from a great author, January 10, 2003

By 

Kelly A. fuller "certified book nut" (Pennsville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Francesca's Party: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have to first say that I love Patricia Scanlan. I have been a fan since I first read City Girls a few years ago and I have read everything she has published since then. I love her work and her stories always hook me in immediately. This book was no different.

From reading the book jacket, you would think that this is your average, run of the mill, divorce story. Bitterness, fights, heatrbeak and trauma. But its much more than that. I think this story was oddly uplifting. A dependent woman learns to stand on her own two feet. She suffers a terrible tragedy but learns that she make something of herself. This is her chance to become the type of woman she always admired. There is lots of drama and heartbreak along the way, making this an inticing read. I definitly recommend it anyone, not just fans of Maeve Binchy. I think that Patricia Scanlan is in a category all her own!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest to goodness story-telling, February 11, 2004

By 

martin o'donnell (Dublin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francesca's Party (Mass Market Paperback)

It's a testament to the strength of Patricia Scanlan's writing that her readers, whether male or female, can empathise with her characters. In this tale of a betrayed wife, we meet a real woman: no Jackie Collins-esque maneater, but a real human being, complete with frailties, faults and vulnerablility. Scanlan manages to avoid the obvious trap of creating a cartoonish lothario in Mark and a martyred heroine in Francesca. Even "the other woman" is portrayed with depth and sensitivity. And that's what keeps you reading. You KNOW these people: you work with them, you live with them, you've grown up with them. You quite possibly might BE them.

This is old-fashioned story-telling at its best. No pretensions. No clever-cleverness. Something some of Ms. Scanlan's peers might care to note. In an age where there is a worrying return to the boorish objectification of women (check MTV, magazines and many youth-orientated TV dramas if you don't believe me), it is refreshing to presented with such a credible character in a book. Somewhere out there, there MUST be a TV producer who can recognise the excellent mini-series waiting within these pages. And when that is broadcast, perhaps Scanlan's wonderful "Promises, Promises" and "Mirror, Mirror" will be filmed too.