Once in a Lifetime [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Cathy Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009

Every woman needs her Cathy Kelly time! When life is full of changes, your friends are the ones who really count! Ingrid Fitzgerald is flying high. A successful TV presenter, she's happily married with two wonderful children. But as they fly the nest, she's about to discover a secret that will shatter her world. Natalie Flynn is falling in love -- but the secrecy surrounding her mother's past still troubles her. Dare she ask the questions that could help her make sense of her life? Charlie Fallon loves her family and her job at Kenny's Department Store, but her eccentric mother is growing more demanding. Could now be the time to fight for her own happiness? The woman with the power to help them is free spirit Star Bluestone. Experience tells her that the important things in life must be treasured and the chance for real joy comes only once in a lifetime!Warm, captivating storytelling from the heart - treat yourself to some Cathy Kelly time.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kelly (What She Wants), whose novels routinely hit #1 on bestseller lists in Ireland, sets her seventh heartbreaker in Kenny's Department Store in the small Irish town of Ardagh. Kenny's provides the captivating center for a sprawling saga that reads like three books slowly tied together in which a collection of women discover their inner strength through adversity. Star Bluestone is a psychically gifted artist pondering her lost love for David Kenny, a poet who left her to run the family business. He married Ingrid Fitzgerald instead, who becomes a famous TV journalist. Ingrid is shattered when David suddenly dies of a heart attack and then shocked to learn about his romantic past with Star and his all too recent affair with the much younger Steffi. Into the mix, Kelly weaves other stories, including those of Ingrid's best friend, image guru Marcella Schmidt, and Kenny employee Charlie Fallon. The magical Star is the treasure of the book, heads above the rest of the conventional cast. She only appears a few times, yet becomes the lodestone for this poignant reminder of how once-in-a-lifetime-love transforms lives. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Ingrid Fitzgerald is a successful journalist with a beautiful family, but she feels as if she’s playing second fiddle to the other woman in her husband David’s life: Kenny’s Department Store, the centerpiece of the tiny Irish town of Ardagh. Now that her children are growing up and leaving the nest she finds herself torn between trying to spend time with her workaholic husband and throwing herself into her own work. But David is working so hard because Kenny’s Department Store might have to shut its doors. The closure of Kenny’s is a big deal not just to Ingrid and David but also to the staff, including Natalie in the café, Charlie Fallon at the cosmetics counter, and Star Bluestone, the local “witch” who sells her elaborate tapestries in the store and can see what’s happening long before anyone else does. Kelly, already a best-selling novelist in Ireland and England, presents a sensitive story about love, family, maturity, and finding your place, a tale sure to please readers everywhere. --Hilary Hatton --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Limited; Unabridged edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846486289
• ISBN-13: 978-1846486289
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Little Trite, January 4, 2010

By 

Dianne E. Socci-Tetro "Books & Chat" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once In a Lifetime (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Once in a Lifetime by Cathy Kelly

Kenny's Department store has been a mainstay, a way of life for ages in Ardagh a small Irish town and unfortunately there is a rumor of a takeover bid. Unfortunately for this exclusive store, the rumors are true.
This book is supposed to center around, and tie together, the women that work at Kenny's, the woman that is married to the stores owner, Ingrid Fitzgerald a political journalist and another woman steeped in an aura of mystery and the paranormal, Star Bluestone. And this would be all fine and dandy if the book really did tie the women together and left out a lot of the past folderol. What should have been expanded on was David's extra curricular activities and his wife dealing with it. Ms Kelly tried to ramp up the tension with her allusions to things not being what they seem and giving us tiny glimpses into the "paranormal" aspect, but for me this trick just didn't work. It seemed more like Ms Kelly wants to jump on the speculative fiction band wagon but can't commit.

The women were not all that likable and Ingrid, even through her mourning, wasn't a very sympathetic character, Star was too vague and "airy fairy", the characters of Dara, Kitty and Lizzie didn't do a thing for me. And speaking of the story, it seemed a little trite and quite thin and haven`t we yet had enough yet, of weak women finding empowerment through the advise of their friends?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She's no Maeve Binchy, January 26, 2010

By 

Readerly (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Once In a Lifetime (Paperback)

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As a Maeve Binchy fan, people often recommend Cathy Kelly to me. I've never been able to make it through one of her books. This one, at least, I did finish, though that was largely because I needed to review it.

Using Kenny's department store as the center of the stories was enjoyable - I found it difficult to keep the storylines straight - there aren't an unmanageable number of main characters, but each has her own constellation of supporting characters with their own problems - Natalie's alcoholic friend Lizzy, Charlie's domineering mother, Ingrid's work cohorts - none of whom really matter.

Kelly's writing is more modern and younger, and perhaps then ineluctably crasser than Binchy, but more to the point, she doesn't have the gift of making characters I really care about, and though the lives of the characters in this novel are connected in a casual way, they don't have the coincidentally deep connections that make Binchy's writing such a delight.

So against Binchy, this book doesn't stand up, but it's not such a treat on its own either. It's predictable and easy to read, but I can't say I'd recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good story..more substance than you might expect, January 3, 2010

By 

Kathleen Wagner (SWPA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Once In a Lifetime (Paperback)

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I received this book from the Amazon vine program. I would never have picked it up on my own for two reasons. One is the cover..terrible chic lit that says to me "keep away"! The title is another. There are other books with this title, and it too shouts chic lit. There is nothing wrong with fluff, chic lit etc. I do pic it up on purpose now and then. Most of the time, I just don't as it is not a favorite. I do like to keep fluffy books around for days when I need a fluffy read. Do not let these things deter you. Not if it is the story that matters to you.

Is this chic lit? Yes and No. It certainly has all of the aspects of chic lit. Girls, divorce, make up , shopping and so on. But the characters are much better rounded out, and the story is much richer than some of the chic lit I have read.

This is a story of women who live in a small town in Ireland. Small town all have one thing in common, it seems. Everyone either knows or knows about everyone else in town. I think what drew me in most was the character of Star. She felt like a kindred spirit.

I liked Charlie Fallon. She is one of those women who it would be very easy to dismiss as a young woman with little substance. She works in the make-up department of the Kenny department store. We find out just how wise and gentle this character really is when she grows a little and feels more comfortable in her own skin.

Kenny's is the basically the heart of the book. Many of the characters are involved in some way with the store or the family. David Kenny inherited the store from his parents and is struggling to keep it going during difficult financial times. His employees are like extended family and he knows how difficult it would be for them if he lost his battle to keep the store as is. The people who work for him appreciate this and know how lucky they are.

Ingrid is Davids wife. He has a son and a daughter, and they have friends and lives of their own that figure into this story. I enjoyed this story. I liked most of the characters and cared what happened to them. I also liked the way that acceptance was both a reality and a lesson.

If you are looking for a good story with likable characters, this is a book for you. I will be happy to read more from this writer. I also plan to gift copies to at least two people I know who will enjoy the story, and perhaps learn about acceptance.

Good read for a relaxing afternoon.