Hearts on a String: A Novel [Paperback]

Kris Radish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Bestselling author Kris Radish delves deeply into the emotions of five very different women who are thrown together by chance—only to discover that they have more in common than they ever could have imagined.
 
Holly Blandeen has always cherished the story her grandmother told her about the thread that connects all women, tying them forever in sisterhood. It’s a beautiful idea, but with all the curveballs life has thrown her way, Holly has often felt isolated, different from other women. That starts to change when she meets four strangers in an airport and they agree to share a luxury hotel suite because a powerful spring storm is barreling across the country, stranding travelers from California to Florida. What begins as a spur-of-the-moment decision becomes an unlikely, unexpected, and sometimes reluctant exercise in female bonding, as these five exceptional women—each at a crossroads—swap stories, share secrets, and seek answers to the questions they’ve been asking about life, love, and the path to true happiness. A storm may have grounded them for the moment, but after this wild adventure in which anything can and does happen, they’ll never have to fly solo again. 
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Radish's unsatisfying latest (after Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA), five women meet, bond, and overcome personal troubles. The women meet in a Tampa, Fla., airport bathroom as a giant storm shuts down the airport. The women decide to make the best of the delay and wait it out in a luxury hotel suite. In the process, they collide with a convention of parapsychics, a sex offender on the loose, and serious personal struggles. Still, the power of sisterhood wins out in the end and the strangers become bosom buddies. Radish's writing is convoluted (This soft and fast-moving moment is as uncomfortable to her as almost anything hard she has ever done), and the far-fetched plot is bogged down with hokey twists—dark secrets, undercover agents, and mystical powers. Only Radish's die-hard fans might manage to engage. (June)
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From Booklist

Nan Telvid, investment banker, is in a restroom at the Tampa airport when she drops her cell phone into the toilet. The four other women in the bathroom—shy hairdresser Holly, guarded lounge-singer Patti, brash executive Cathy, and exhausted mom Margo, quickly come to her aid, but as soon as they do, they hear an announcement that their flight is cancelled because of a summer storm. Driven by the camaraderie of the moment, they all agree to rent a suite at a local hotel to wait it out. Once there, the five women start to think maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. But as the storm rages outside, the close quarters force a provisional intimacy, and they begin to realize that regardless of age, number of children, or career, there is always a common element of sisterhood between women. Once again, Radish is entertaining, this time offering an inspiring story for fans of Rebecca Wells and anyone with a strong woman in her or his life. --Hilary Hatton

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Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Original edition (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384759
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384758
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kris Radish grew up dreaming about living a Nancy Drew-like life and always held her own passion for writing very close to her heart. A former journalist, nationally syndicated columnist, magazine writer and university instructor, Radish also loves to tell stories about the times she picked nighcrawlers, served beer to cowboys, worked on a tomato farm and hung out of the side of a fast moving helicoper.

Radish is now the bestselling author of six novels and has captured the hearts of legions of fans with her heartwarming, real, passionate and often hilarious novels. Her stories focus on the important bonds of female friendship and celebrate the common feelings, heartaches, loves, and struggles that all women share. She loves to call her work "true fiction" because she addresses the real emotions that women live and share every day.

She is also the author of two non-fiction books, writes poetry, is the mother of two young and very fiesty adults, is known for her wild laugh and wilder hair, and is working on her seventh novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A slow start but worth the wait, August 3, 2010

By 

Sheila A. Dechantal (Brainerd, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hearts on a String: A Novel (Paperback)

I do enjoy books on women's friendships and that was the draw for me to this book. Plus.... of course, total cover love. It looks like bubble gum or cotton candy... :)

It took awhile for this book to really get started. In the beginning you learn much of each of the women and the conversations during this part of the book didn't flow for me and somehow felt choppy. As the women share stories we as readers are let in on some unusual secrets


That being said, once you get through this bumpy section, the book picks up a pleasant pace that left me overall satisfied with this read. I appreciated the ending of the book and felt it wrapped up nicely and made me consider those bonds, or strings if you will, of friendships that I am thankful to have in my life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another Disappointment from Radish, August 24, 2010

By 

Ivy P. (Lakeside, NH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hearts on a String: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

I have loved, and gifted, some of Ms. Radish's earlier books but found her work before this, "Searching for Paradise . . ." a disappointment. I had high hopes for this, her latest book, but it seems her trajectory continues to go down instead of up. I'm left to wonder if Ms Radish has lost her zest for writing and is merely plugging words into a formula that no longer works. "A group of women, strangers to one another?" Check. "At varying stages of life?" Check. "Lots of emotional baggage littering the landscape?" Check. "Strengthened by the bonds of sisterhood, community, and a little male bashing?" Check. Actually, it's not just that the formula is tired and tread bare; the characters here are simply not very likable and it was very hard to get past the beginning of the book which is filled with bickering and sniping. I missed the spirit and humor - and yes, the esprit de corps I've come to expect from Radish's women. I'm not sure if I'll buy another of her books.

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging!, December 14, 2011

By 

Lori Caswell "dollycas" (FALL RIVER, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hearts on a String: A Novel (Paperback)

A group of women meet for the very first time in an airport bathroom in Florida. They seem to come together while helping one of the women retrieve her cell phone that has fallen into the toilet. Just as soon as the phone is saved an announcement shocks them all. The airport is closing due to a freak storm. No flights are going anywhere. Their choices are few, camp out in the airport with hundreds/thousands of other people for God knows how long or share a luxury hotel suite. They choose the hotel suite of course, and that is when this spur of the moment decision takes them on a very unexpected trip that could change their lives.

Dollycas's Thoughts
This was not my favorite Kris Radish book but after a slow start I really did enjoy it. This random group of women thrown together under strange circumstances and trying to cope with their huge differences was interesting, funny, sad and at times pretty unbelievable but I just went with it. Each woman was exceptional in their own way, handling some kind of stressful circumstances in each of their own lives and by sharing their stories it helped them to develop a weird type of bond. The psychic convention and another back story were a little over the top and I am not sure if these elements were even necessary to a book that may have been stronger without them. I didn't like this one as much as I did The Elegant Gathering of White Snows, but it's a engaging story of unlikely friendships.