Customer Reviews

Late Bloomer

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

The marvelous, interesting, and well-developed characters in this book made it a joy to read. I was particularly taken with Lola and her associates and their foibles. Michaels has the ability to create real people of all ages, and she does a splendid job with their interactions. Her plot is nicely woven as well, which makes for an eminently satisfying read.

I especially appreciated how she ended the book, not resorting to any cheap tricks as a lesser writer might have done. Her characters were consistent, and their behavior was believable.

Strongly recommended, and kudos to the author!

Twenty years after an accident that changed her life, Cady Jordan returns to her home town where a nasty secret has been kept since the accident that seriously injured her and killed another child, thirteen-year-old bully Jeff King. Cady has not been able to remember the day's events and has spent twenty years living in its shadow.

While this basic storyline seems ominous, the book is actually more a romantic comedy than a dark mystery. Cady comes back to help her elderly grandmother, former movie star, Lola Jor Dan. Lola and her cohorts, Mandy and Anthony, her friends and so-called house staff, were once part of the Hollywood film scene. Lola went through six husbands and a host of paramours in her younger years and is quite the character. The antics of these three are quite amusing as they work to get Cady to remember the accident and get a life. Childhood friends, twins Andy and Amy Hollister (Chambers), Pete Danson, and Boomer Ward figure in this story and certainly into the day in Indigo Valley that the town still talks about. The book is a mix of humor, romance, intrigue, and even a tear or two.

As I read this book I was wondering, as I always do, about its appropriateness for young people. My conclusion: this is a good book for teenage boys and girls. While it may seem more appropriate for girls, I recommend it to boys as well. There are three men in this story who have some major soul-searching to do as to what kind of man each truly is. If I were a teacher, I'd have my high school students read it and discuss how seriously a lie told once, can grow into a monster over time and change your life forever. It's also a good lesson about how far some people will go out of fear of such a lie being exposed.

The book was easy to read. Some of the writing was a little iffy for me with some scenarios a little unlikely...not improbably, just unlikely. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Okay, this is the third book of hers that I have read, and they are all written in the same childish way. The writing is stilted and the characters are just silly. In this book, the characters are not even likable, even Cady, the "heroine." The dialogue is too simplistic and the book was about 300 pages too long. I am not sure why Michaels is supposedly a great author- the books I have read are very dissapointing. I won't be picking any more of her books up to read.

I had never read (or listened to) a Fern Michaels novel and after this childish crap can truly say I never will again. What is it with these writers who start off critical, talented and hungry who have some best sellers and then think any garbage they commit to the written word is a slam dunk (i. e. James Patterson)? Michaels characters are at the very least extremely bipolar, (what's the deal with that first blowup between Boomer and Cady), at the most shallow and juvenile. The dialogue is sophomoric, repetitive and just plain comic book, and I never cared for an instant about anyone in the book. If this is all it takes to have a best seller, I'm quitting my day job and buying a computer, because I can write rings around this refuse. If I could choose zero stars, I gladly would have. The only saving grace is that I listened to the book on CD, (coincidentally read in the same trite, overbearing, mushy, juvenile, stupid way it was written), which I borrowed from my local library, saving my money for something, anything of any value at all.

I'm at a loss as to how a book so poorly written could be so highly rated. Michaels makes the mistakes of a college (or even high school) creative writing student. Her sentence level writing as well as her scene and character development are so simplistic that I had to force myself to finish the book just to see why people recommended it. If you do not mind poor writing and unlikely leaps in the plotline, then perhaps you can enjoy the few positive elements of this book. If you are ever bothered by such things, then don't waste your time.

Can't believe I actually finished this book. Could not find a single likeable character in the entire book, never mind realistic.
Even ended up disliking the female character thoroughly and sympathizing with the "bad guy". All that stuff about Cody being so sweet(yuck!)... Not my idea of a sweet girl, she's just so shallow and dumb! After reading the book, I wouldn't mind tossing a rock at her myself.

This is one of the worst novels I've ever read! The characters are not exploited, the plot is scattered all over the place, and the dialogue is SO BORING it was only by sheer willpower that I turned the last page. Cady Johnson appears as a silly introvert heroine that, with only one visit from a designer, changes her looks, her wardrobe and her 20-year long fears and attitudes, and turns out to be witty, adventurous and interesting. If only! Boomer, the wanna-be hero, comes out of nowhere, with a life-long love for Cady that has been hiding in his heart and comes alive after just once glance to her renovated self. Please! Save yourself a lot of deception and skip this one.

No editor worth his or her salt should have sent this book to print. Did the author even read through it after writing it? Discrepancies abound, the dialogue is both rambling and choppy (breathe much?), and the "plot" never develops. Basically, you can read the blurb and be done with it. From one page to the next, the characters bop around from personality to personality, never reaching any more depth than they had when first introduced (getting a make-over does NOT constitute character development.). My guess is that this book was published because the author has enjoyed past best-sellers, and name recognition will sell it. I could find nothing even remotely credible in this story. And who gave the fashion advice? If you enjoy reading the equivalent of a first-time novelist's first draft, go ahead and buy (or better yet, visit a library). My assessment is that this book never bloomed at all.

I just couldn't get into the book. The writing seemed choppy. I didn't feel much for the characters. Skipped many pages because I was just bored. I did read the end though and it just seemed a little odd...especially the whole shower thing. Many parts of the book just left me hanging and were not explained in enough depth to make it "realistic" and plausable.

Not impressed at all with this book.

Picked it up in an airport looking for something light and entertaining - and was to be a 'captive audience' for 6 hours. I did the crossword puzzle in Spirit Magazine, I read about every sort of contrivance available in Skymall and I was left with no choice but to snore or read this. (I chose poorly, a nap would have at least been beneficial.) The writing was at best, adolescent, the plot was plodding and predictable. Fern Michaels may be an animal lover, but she knows nothing about dogs. Abused dogs do not 'turn around' overnight - they're scared, withdrawn and many times understandably aggressive, but most certainly they are NOT outgoing and trusting. (I rescue these dogs, rehabbing a dog like this can take years.) Police dogs do not launch unprovoked attacks. They do not rip dresses off women for no apparent reason or because they don't like their 'stink' (sheesh). Any police dog handler would know not to take their dog into an unknown dog's territory so they can 'meet'.

That and myriad other stupid or careless mistakes make this book barely readable. The plot.. well, it could have been interesting if it had been written by an actual writer - maybe. I get the feeling she just churns this stuff out, just comes up with a half-baked plot and hands it off to a bunch of 8th graders. I will remember this author and avoid everything else written by her.

Of course if you like her other books, you'll probably like this one too. But do yourself a favor, if you want a really good book try Maeve Binchy or Rosamund Pilcher, two marvelous writers.

If Monty Python's Flying Circus was still together, they could have made a hysterical skit out of this! As one reviewer mentioned: "Death by Shower!"