Customer Reviews

Looking for Peyton Place

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have just finished another great book by Barbara Delinsky. She never fails to educate me about something in a thoroughly enjoyable novel. This time it was Grace Metalious and mercury poisoning.

The story is about an author who is haunted by the stigma she felt from her small New England town and the haunting influence of the author of Peyton Place. In an effort to find out why her mother died she goes back to the town she grew up in to finds answers. What she also finds is love, family, a home and peace of mind.

As usual I love Barbara's plot, characters, the building of relationships and what I learned.

Middle River is the New England town that Grace Metalious' novel Peyton Place was based on. Middle River looks quaint and wholesome, but people have secrets would ruin them if they get out. It is a company town and Sandy Meade owns the Northwood Paper Mill that employs most of the townsfolk so people are very reluctant to talk about the wrongdoing of Sandy and his son Aidan.

When Annie Barnes, a famous writer, thinks about her mother's death, she isn't sure that the official verdict tells the whole story. She returns to Middle River where she sees Phoebe have the same symptoms that her mother had. After doing some research, she thinks that they and other villagers suffer from mercury poison. The only place in town that uses mercury is the paper plant. The Meades try to turn the townsfolk against her and run her out of town before she learns what they are trying so desperately to hide. Making matters worse is that Annie falls for James Meade who refuses to tell her what he knows about his family and the possibility of mercury poisoning afflicting the people of Middle River.

The best part of reading a Barbara Delinsky book is that she never tells the same story twice and she imbues her storyline with a relevant social issue. LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE is a fabulous mainstream women's fiction book focusing on a spunky protagonist. Annie is determined to find out what is wrong in her town because she doesn't want to lose her sister or have other innocent people fall ill or die. Ms. Delinsky puts her heart into her work.

Harriet Klausner

Over the past five years I have been reading Barbara's books and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. She always includes the right ingredients-romance, mystery, suspense, and a thoroughly happy ending. This one is no exception....it is also very informative, and she appears to have done sufficient research on the topics of which she speaks. I read all the other customer reviews and I don't understand why some people read her books with such a critical eye. Some people are just too picky!! This is a great read and I look forward to her next novel. I may even suggest this one for our neighborhood book club to read. Thank you, Barbara.

I have been an avid Barbara Delinsky fan since reading THREE WISHES - her newest novel definitely lived up to my expectations. It was an excellent read and, when putting it down, I couldn't wait to pick it up again. I am planning on reading the original Peyton Place novel by Grace Metalious, which is an important part of the story. I would highly recommend LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE.

I'm with the other reviewers who did not enjoy this. As I have enjoyed many of Delinsky's other books, I expected a lot more from this. I was not really engaged in the characters or the story, and found the first person format somewhat jarring for some reason.

This book by B. Delinksy is a first for me. I picked it up and thought it sounded interesting, especially since I'm a big fan of the original Peyton Place and I admired the writing so much of Grace Metalious. If a book doesn't grab me right off, then I tend to wander off onto something else. Then I'll go back and read a little more. When, or if, a slow-starting NOW YOU GOT ME book such as this one, finally gets my interest. Then I stay with it. The first 100 pages were lacking, but then the story picked up and I finished reading the book. I'll have to say that I think Delinksy is a wonderful writer. But this book just didn't seem to fit with the plot and the characters. Since I have nothing else to compare it with that I've read before of Delinsky's work, then I can only muster a three-star rating. I already own the book, so it will go into my library. But just to be on the safe side, I'll go to my local library for my next Delinksy read. I think her heart was in the right place, but maybe just at the wrong time. Her research was good and that's a plus in her favor. And her romance section was clean and neat, another plus. If you're looking for trashy romance scenes, this book isn't for you. But if you're looking for romance that's truly sincere and sweet, then it is. I'll read more of Delinksy's work again, no doubt about that.

Not just a girl meets boy, they court, they fight, they fall in love story. There is a bit of mystery. There is a bit of history about the
ill-fated writer of Peyton Place, Grace Metalious. There are
family dynamics and small town dynamics. An interesting storyline about the hazards of mercury that exists today.
A wee bit slow to start, but soon finds a rythm and finishes very nicely.
The lead, Annie, is a uniquely written character. A bit of an odd-ball.
I liked her voice.
From cover to cover, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
One side note that is not about Delinsky. What is with these new format paperbacks that cost 2.00 more? They aren't easier to read than
a regular size mass market. That is two in a row that Delinsky's house has published this way. Geesh new paperbacks are expensive enough.

As usual, Barbara Delinsky has provided me with an outstanding summer read! Looking for Peyton Place is not just a mindless romance story. It involves little known facts about mercury poisoning, chelation, and the original Peyton Place author, Grace Metalious. I have enjoyed all of her books so much, and this one was not a disappointment. This is an excellent choice for travelers who spend time in airports as well as beach bums.

It took well over 500 pages to write what should have been written in 300 or so pages, and in those last 200 pages, my interest was sorely flagging.

I didn't find Annie particularly compelling on any level. Her personality, while supposedly she was the town pariah since her teens, was more milquetoast than troublemaker. How an entire town could come to despise her for vague things she did when she was young is beyond my comprehension.

The exchanges between Annie and Grace Metalious were bizarre, and I didn't buy that they were the product of a creative writer-type.

Frankly, I felt that the author basically used Ms. Metalious and her novel Peyton Place to piggyback on to sell this mediocre novel of her own.

I would only recommend this book to a masochist.

Another fabulous book by Ms. Delinsky. I like that it ties into the real past. Also, it strikes a chord with me, as I grew up in a furniture & textile town and believe that much of it is contaminated by unscrupulous business practices.