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Live Armadillos [Paperback]

Deanne Devine (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Book Description

November 1, 2005
To Dana Elliot, success meant impressing the right people, going to the right places and possessing the right things. She had a prestigious job, a fabulous car and the extraordinary attitude to go along with all the trappings of her idea of the American Dream. Anyone who couldn't understand this was, well, ordinary.

But when she is deserted by her husband and left in debt up to her eyebrows, Dana's world crumbles. Forced to move from her luxury high-rise in the city, she accepts the offer of help from her quirky co-worker, Helen, and moves into Helen's guest room in the quiet town of Bradbury, Indiana.

With backyard barbecues replacing social soirées, Dana discovers that "ordinary" lives can be fulfilling and even a touch mysterious. In Bradbury, life is without pretense; neighbors know and care for each other. It is a world apart from corporate mergers, late-night dinner parties and skyscrapers and no one is more surprised than Dana at how easily she adapts. She has made true friends and found the courage to reconnect with her estranged family. At age 42, Dana has finally found the place she wants to call home
But even the best of dreams must end. There are sorrows lurking in the homes of her neighbors, secrets behind the doors, hurts that haven't healed in Helen's home, and Dana's own past cruelties that must be relived. The ultimate wake up call: the grind of the wheels of progress that are coming to run over Bradbury. Powered by the laws of eminent domain and led by a fleet of bulldozers, corporate expansion intends to pave right over the town.
To save her last chance at life, Dana must stand in the way of everything for which she had once lived. Her only hope for success is, well, unusually ordinary.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 438 pages
  • Publisher: The Lighthouse Press, Inc. (November 1, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1932211179
  • ISBN-13: 978-1932211177
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,872,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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4 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The awakening of Dana E., November 29, 2005
This review is from: Live Armadillos (Paperback)
This is the story of Dana Elliot, a successful executive who didn’t feel the need to be nice to anybody who couldn’t advance her up the social or business ladder. Nose permanently in the air, she didn’t smell a rat until her trophy toy-boy husband ran off with his secretary to parts unknown, but not before systematically cleaning Dana out financially.

Faced with bankruptcy, Dana gets another rude awakening when she realizes that she’s not the hot shot financial whiz that she ought to be, given her job in the Budget department, and that she has no one to fall back on, or to confide in, about her problems.

Still trying to maintain her aloof façade while facing eviction and mounting bills, she reluctantly clutches at her last straw, an offer from an almost complete stranger, a co-worker named Helen, who had extended an invitation to her home. Helen herself is not quite sure why she made the offer, but is very surprised when Dana accepts and moves to the tiny town of Bradbury with its largely geriatric neighborhood.

Obviously this calls for some soul searching and difficult adjustments for both women, both of whom are reluctant to give up their past shadows, but gradually they come to an understanding. As life would have it, the small town has a secret or two of its own, and just when the dust seems to have settled, the developers move in with plans to flatten their little community to pave the way for progress.

This is a well told tale, richly descriptive of human character and life in a small closely knit neighborhood, but tends to ramble in places, coming to a rather abrupt ending with everything falling into place a little too conveniently. Entertaining, and easy to read, but needing a little editing.




Amanda Richards, November 29, 2005
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5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing story, July 23, 2011
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This review is from: Live Armadillos (Paperback)
Ambitious, heartless hospital executive Dana Elliot (think Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada) is shafted by her much younger husband and left broke and alone with an empty bank account and no way to pay the rent on her expensive condo. Helen Weaver, the hospital Coordinator of Volunteer Services, comes to Dana's rescue and offers to share her home while Dana gets back on her feet. Not only do these two very different women struggle to understand each other but, as their lives become more entwined, they also struggle to understand the choices they have made and to reconsider what they really want out of life.

When Helen's neighborhood is slated to be seized by eminent domain for the benefit of the medical group that owns the hospital where they both work, Dana is assigned the job of representing the developers in the PR campaign. Dana must either work for the destruction of the neighborhood that she has come to call home or put her career in jeopardy.

Not only was I rooting for Dana and Helen and their endangered neighborhood, but I began to reflect upon the price we pay for success in the workplace, even those of us who are not corporate climbers.

The demand of keeping up with demanding workloads, long commutes, and transient neighborhoods has changed how we interact - and the time we have to interact - with our families, our neighbors, and our fellow workers. Live Armadillos is an entertaining novel that questions the high cost in quality of life that is often the price of "success" today.
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5.0 out of 5 stars excellent novel, February 25, 2008
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christie (Columbus, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Live Armadillos (Paperback)
Deanne Devine captures your imagination and your heart in this coming of age novel that all professional young women should read. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her work in print, and perhaps on the large screen.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The young man made a wise decision when he stepped out of the way. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
live armadillos, credit counselor, funnel cake
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Dorothy Lane, Dana Elliot, Grabill Marcum, Main Street, Ken Dalton, Helen Weaver, Arlene Hutton, Wintergreen Woods, Helping Hand, Randall Filgus, Mama Abbot, Luke Miller, Stuart Price, Willow Park, Regina Albert, Aunt Grace, Mike Morehouse, Autumn Ball, Christmas Eve, Merry Widows, Open House, Roy Bell, Sandy Petiti, Stephen Berryhill, Denver Bell
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