Customer Reviews

Letting Go (Stp - Mira)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Though five years ago her beloved husband Paul died, Ellen Jameson still carries his ashes in an urn, as she cannot let go even though her world has ended. Her suburban friends ignore her, the family accounting business went bankrupt when Paul the CPA passed away, and now she sits on the brink of becoming homeless. She moves to nearby San Antonio seeking an accounting clerk job and saves money by living in the house of her mother Wilma. Also moving in to her mom's house is Ellen's party-going daughter Amber and granddaughter Jet. Four generations of women share a house whose ownership is being contested in the courts.

Ellen finds work at Roper's Accounting home of "The Cowboys of Taxes". Amber is good at her mall job, but prefers to party. Wilma watches the well-behaved active three-year-old Jet, but struggles to keep up especially pulling her oxygen tank with her. On the brink of homelessness, Wilma decides Ellen must marry with the only prospect her daughter's employer even if he is more her age. Wilma and Jet begin matchmaking as four generations of women try to survive deep in a heartless Texas.

Though not filled with any action, fans of deep character studies will want to read LETTING GO a strong look at four women living, loving, and suffering together under one roof. Each member of the quartet has a distinguished personality though Jet seems too mature. Pamela Morsi provides an insightful look at moving on while still remembering a lost loved one that will leave her audience grateful for her graceful talent.

Harriet Klausner

I surely hope that Ms. Morsi goes back to what she does best and that is writing Americana stories.
Her contemporary novels are sad and dull to say the least.
The only reason I've kept reading is because I spent top dollar for it.

I loved this book! I have also read Doing Good by the same author but liked Letting Go much better. The characters were very interesting, including the minor characters, which is sometimes rare. This book held my interest throughout and continually surprised me. I highly recommend it!

This book made me a Morsi fan! If this is not her best book, I have a lot of great reading ahead of me! This book shows how a family can lose touch and how they can come together again. Bad things can happen and it takes a family a long time to overcome a death in the family, if they ever overcome! Relationships take work. Morsi showed several generations of strong females in one family making the best of things. I loved it and highly recommend this book!

I have read all of Morsi's books. Her earlier historical romances were simply wonderful. They had great characterizations, humor and moving story lines. Letting Go had great characterizations but at the end of the book I wanted to ask what was the point of all the characterizations-the story wasn't worth all of the effort. Recently I read Simple Jess and it was rich, poignant, and the way she crafted the story was masterful. I hope she will return to her writing roots. I miss my favorite author.

I really enjoyed this book. One of the best contemporary women's books I have read in a long time. Couldn't put it down. Interesting to see 4 generations of women trying to get along in life in some troubled times. Complex and delightful charachters. It made me laugh and it made me cry. I could relate to each charachter in a different way. Made me see the importance of family and family love. Highly Recomended!!! Can't wait to read more of Pamela Morsi's books. This was my first one.

Ellen Jameson's eternal optimism is severely challenged lately. Five years after her husband's early death to cancer, she has had to sell their home and move in with her mother, Wilma, her own daughter, Amber, and granddaughter, Jet, in tow. Whilel Jet is a charmer, Amber has a chronically bad attitude and is struggling between independence and neediness. Wilma believes in serial monogamy and may be turned out of her home before too long. Her last husband did not change his will before his death, and now his children want the house Wilma is entitled to.

Ellen does manage to find a job, and her mother thinks that marrying the boss would solve all her daughter's problems. However, when Wilma goes to play matchmaker, she finds the boss more attractive to herself than to Ellen.

Amber is dealing with problems at work, wanting to move out and abandon her child, and a sudden reappearance of an old friend who could very well turn out to be more than an old friend. She also has to deal with the prejuidices she herself harbors about her mixed race child and the ones she imagines are against them.

***** Of course, all of that is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a few assorted other problems, health crises, and the kitchen sink to face before the last page is turned. Ms. Morsi has long been a talented writer, but with her debut in contemporary women's fiction, she has truly come into her own. You will laugh through the tears reading this book. Wilma is a hoot, plain and simple. I wish she was young enough to star in a continuing series. Anyone who has faced a life full of changes and challeges will sympathize so much with Ellen that at times the novel will hit too close to home. Yet, in her triumph over the odds, you will find affirmation and hope. *****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.

The book was about a family of women and the problems that they have to overcome- individually and as a family. The problem I had with this book that there was too much whining and not enough good things. I know that doesn't make sense but the characters were downers. They all had great things going for them but they didn't communicate enough with each other and in the end very little was resolved. The only character who I liked completely was Brent, a family friend who might (or might not) have a crush on the 22 year old. To be honest, it seemed like a set up for a sequel.

Life is what we make of it. This lively novel about four strong females from age sixty down to three shows the instability of life without a successful man to pay for their essential needs. According to Ms. Morsi, the most important thing about having a past is letting it go. Most of us are caught in a maze of guilt because of what our parents and grandparents did. It was really nothing scandalous for their time and status in life. Maybe there's a convicted criminal in your family tree, always a male, who served his time (didn't learn the first time so commits the same felony for the same reason (about a woman) and so his family turned their backs on this "black sheep" of the family. Every family has a rebel. I'm not a male though I grew up around them and had a professor husband and three sons, but I was definitely the rebel, leaving home at age seventeen. So why was I so devastated when my youngest son did the same? It's easy -- after the divorce, when he was only three and a half, he became my whole world. My aim was to live long enough to get him through high school, as I had almost dropped out of Central my senior year when my dad and I were constantly at cross-purposes. But I had a godmother and a fantastic mentor who gave good advice to a smart student. No jobs in this town for a young girl unless she inadvertently through the influence of a corrupt city policeman ended up in a house of ill repute. I was told by a local historian/biographer that the majority of downtown buildings were used as such places.

So when I was alone again, I felt that my life was over. Justin was my life, but now he was grown and flew the coup. It was hard to "let go" and rebuild a life in which I could survive on my own. After some years of barely existing and enduring many physical illnesses, I learned word processing at the local vo-tech but was too old by then to get a full-time computer job. I spent two weeks helping to put new bicycles together at Murray Ohio, one night as a janitor for another factory, and many part-time positions doing computer tasks the factory employees could not master. I met a lot of people who appreciated my skills, and the literary club was supportive. Then, like Ellen, I went home again, something I'd talked about for years; God takes his time arranging our lives and the unexpected occurred so that I found myself home again. Home for me is a town where I'd had a happy and fulfilling growing-up existence. For years, things were worse than the small town as no one knew me and Knoxvillians are not friendly. The second return, I was a curiosity to someone with gentle blue eyes who guided me into an activist role in my hometown. It was demanding but I concentrated on things which mattered to me, and I did make a difference.

Letting go has always been extra hard for me. But I wasn't like Wilma, Ellen's mother, who had to have a man. A long-distance relationship of six years soured and I was devastated by all the deception of the scoundrels involved. Like Ellen, getting on with life is a must. Letting go of harmful, destructive influences are a part of living life to the fullest. She was young enough to find another love. I shall find another project which needs changing and work my magic on improving this town -- if that is possible, under the circumstances.

i have been a long time fan of Pamela Morsi and I found this book to be a huge disappointment. Her earlier work, the historical romances she did, were wonderful uplifting stories of people falling in love and coming to terms with who they were. I found this book negative and depressing. I hope Pamela Morsi returns to her usual good work