Customer Reviews

Plain Jane

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Fern Michaels is such a superb writer. The characters are very well written, which draws the reader in, and you can't help but become immediately emotionally involved with them and the story.

Jane Lewis grew up to be a strong independent woman who is still haunted by an unsolved death in her past. To be free of the past, she must resolve it. Jane and Mike are perfectly matched old friends that fall in love. Secondary characters Trixie and Fred are well developed and compliment the story well.

If I could give this book 0 stars I would. This is the first Fern Micheals book that I have ever read and it will be the last. I couldn't be paid to read anything else from her. I actually had to restrain myself from writing to her about how horrible the book is.

I was insulted by this book from the very beginning. Jane made a comment that She wouldn't let anyone borrow books because of the author's royalties. While this may be a problem Ms. Micheals should have picked a different place to express this.

With the exception of Trixie all of the female charachters were weak! Jane gave up a thriving practice and her radio show because she made one mistake. Then she went from helping people to helping dogs! Okay I could understand Trixie giving up her career for the dogs- that was ample enough people giving up their lives to help animals. Jane should have been stronger and stuck with her profession instead of being a quiter.

Both of the rape victims ended up commiting suicide. It sends a message that everyone who gets raped kills themselves. This is not true. This book would have been 100% better if Ms. Micheals would have shown a survivor. (I don't think there is one fighter in this book with exception to the dogs.)

Jane invited all of the Rapists to her home, knowing that the only protection that she had was a couple of dogs! How stupid is she? Then the book never resovles what happens to these men. Instead it says that Jane doesn't care what happened to them. How could she not care? This was a burdon that she carried around for most of her adult life, and she just didn't care about the outcome?

The thing that bothered me the most was that the book had the potential to be ranked at five stars. If she would have shown a survivor and told what happened to the rapists and gotten rid of one of the sub-plots it could have been better.

Unfurtunately my mother borrowed, yes borrowed, this book before I could shred it and burn it. This was also her first and last book by Fern Micheals- however if it was good she would have probably bought several more books. So maybe Fern Micheals put that little remark in because she knew that she doesn't have what it takes to keep readers. I would suggest that if she were a better writer than she wouldn't have to worry about people borrowing books. She would know that eventually that person would become one of her avid readers.

This book was really hokey. The author has an odd way of writing that feels very disjointed to me. Also, I didn't like the way that both the rape victims in the story were treated by their significant others. Neither man could supposedly deal with the rape and left them. I am sure this happens sometimes, but I feel it did a diservice to men. Most men do NOT leave their spouse when they are raped or blame their spouse for the rape.

This was my first Fern Michaels book. I was looking for a new author. But I HATED this book.

First, the author's writting style is clunky, for lack of a better word. I can't explain it, but the conversations all seem somewhat rushed and disjointed. I'm not sure which is the main story, the heroines search for the rapists or her romance. Then there are the subplots, the dogs and the ghosts.

Second, the heroine, Jane... you want to like her but as the book progresses you like her less and less and less. Her godparents bemoan the "hard knocks" she has had through life and ask themselves when she is going to get a break. WHAT???? In the first place, Jane never got raped during the attack she wallows over for years, just called a few names. The latter apparently enough to keep an intelligent, wealthy and successful woman from going to the police. Jane has a better life than most of us could even imagine. She has a PhD, a thriving and lucrative business and is a minor celebrity in her area. She has godparents who are more supportive to her than most biological parents. Plus they are major writing celebrities and have oodles of money to burn on trivialities, all of which they have bequethed to Jane. Jane also apparently has money to burn, as she is able to purchase and fully furnish a house for a ghost; not to mention throw away a career many people would spend their lives building. On top of that, she has a wonderful and supportive boyfriend who is understanding even though she is a major jerk to him on several occasions and acts like a wacko most of the rest of the time. Despite all the wonderful things in her life, she wallows constantly in self-pity, bitterness and hatred.

Third, the characters are hardly believable. Jane is a doctor and lacks a basic understanding of why medical professionals have to maintain a professional distance and not get personally involved with all their patients problems. She acts so immature at times I wonder how she ever managed to get through medical school or deal with psychatric patients. Her godmother's "tough love" is way out of bounds. At one point the godmother chews the boyfriend a new one simply because he doesn't want to let Jane wallow is self-pity, something the godmother attacks Jane for later on. On top of that, the godmother's obcession with the retired police dog goes beyond believability. The actions of the animals are unbelievable too. They are way to understanding of human speech and all that stuff. It is ridiculous.

Finally, the ghost and rapists story lines were ridiculous. Jane invites 7 attackers to her home and nothing happens whatsoever. So anticlimatic, then the author just stops giving any care to the story and doesn't even wrap it up. It was so unsatisfying. Instead, the story drags on with Jane's idiocy and you begin to wonder if she in fact should be a psychiatric patient. The ghost stories were ridiculous too and told me that this writer could not be taken seriously. I wonder where her editors and publishers were. With some help, this could have been a decent novel. Too bad.

I've read many Fern Michaels' books before and enjoyed her stories. I've read paranormal books before and enjoyed the stories. However, this book one of the worst stories I've ever read - which is saying a lot! It was full of amazing (unbelievable) coincidences. It was completely predictable (plain overweight Jane becomes a successful attractive woman who meets up with the unobtainable boy from high school, a wicked mother who didn't love Jane because she wasn't pretty and treated Jane with extreme cruelty, loving but goofy godparents that made Jane's life bearable, etc.). There was very little time spent on character development and multiple unrelated items thrown in that distract from the story. And the reason for the unsolved crime that took place in the beginning of the book was the most insane reason I've ever heard (see Plot Spoiler below for details).

I would not recommend this book if it was free - I was so disappointed by the author that I'm actually writing her a letter (a little more diplomatic than this review). If you really think you want to read this book, I recommend reading the first few chapters in the book store before you actually plunk down [money]. The first couple of chapters weren't bad, but it falls apart quickly thereafter.<

When Jane Lewis was in college she was overweight, frumpy and painfully shy. She so wanted to be like Connie Bryan, the homecoming queen. Today, Jane Lewis is confident and has a thriving psychotherapy practice, her own radio talk show, a beautiful old Louisiana mansion and her dog, Olive to keep her company. What she is missing, however, is someone to share her life.

Jane is haunted by a spirit in her house, as well as the brutal, unsolved attack that ended Connie Bryan's life. The present begins to collide with the past, and a man she admired from afar in college comes in to her life and Jane finds herself re-evaluating he life and everything in it.

This was really a great read for me. I have always enjoyed Fern Michaels' books, and this one is right up on my favorites list!

The story line was well-written and the characters well-developed. By the end of the book, Jane and all the other main characters felt very real.

Is it a mystery whodunnit? An endearing animal story? A romance? A ghost story? Inquiring minds want to know.....but probably won't. The author seemed to be all over the place with her plot, which left me with a very unsatisfied feeling throughout the book. The different elements from mystery to dog training to ghost story, etc... felt very choppy and unrelated. The main plotline was supposed to be the mystery behind the rapes of two of the characters, but the author drags you along for most of the book, only to leave the climax and resolution incredibly weak. In addition, while I am all for a ghostly element(a la Barbara Michaels) or the additon of animals into the plotline, I found that the ghosts and animals were so extreme as to be ridiculous and distracting.
Besides the plot itself, I really didn't like the heroine. I think the author's goal was to make us empathize with Jane's rough childhood, so that excuses could be made for her treatment of her boyfriend and others. I DID feel empathy for her pain originally, but as the book progressed she just came across as mean spirited and nasty. By the end, I had lost patience with her whining self-pity, and just wanted the book to be done. Sorry to give a bad review, but it was that bad.

I purchased this book based on several five star reviews recorded by reviewers. You have to be kidding! I could not get through more than one third of the book before shelving it. It is so hokey! No plot to speak of, merely implausible scenarios such as that of a 70+ year old lady, a well-funded writer, entertaining her newly acquired former K-9 dog with rides in a police car especially purchased, with the dog in mind, from the local police department. The car, complete with wailing sirens, is meant to bring the dog out of a depression caused by his forced retirement. This kooky character and her husband hide "evidence" such as phony bags of drugs and money to keep the canine happy. The lady races over open fields (the car is not allowed on public roads)simulating the dog's former work with law enforcement. This is only one sub-plot, the others weren't much better. Figuring I had plunked down over five bucks for the book, I managed to wade through a bit more of this drivel, before throwing the book down for good. I can't wait to toss the book into the next bag of items I compile for our local thrift store.

Poor Jane was the chubby nerd of LSU when on one night she comes to the aid of a woman that is her total opposite. Jane hides the secrets of that violent evening for twelve years when she finally realizes that she has to overcome her fears and her ghosts. Plain Jane really gives a reader a beautiful tour or rural Louisana and of course Ms. Michaels always has an array of colorful character and their even more colorful dogs. The one thing I love about Fern Micheals stories is that the main character's dog are the "rock of Gilbraltar" in their lives. They characters conversations with them as if they were humans themselves. I would love to see one of Fern Micheal's stories on the small or silver screen because the characters are life-like and readers can really related. And I'm sure there is a Jane Daniels walking on every college campus right now.

This was not a good book. Jane as a character was flat. Mike was pretty much a nobody - didn't know what he had to fall in love with - unless it was intended that his loving an ugly woman was enough. The dogs were center stage and since I'm not a dog fan, I found them irritating. The godparents had their moments, but only a few. The confrontation scene at the end was ridiculous - wouldn't men who did such terrible things (and gotten away with them) be just a little bit smarter? The character Bill was pure evil at the beginning and good at the end without adequate reasons for the change. When he first appeared I thought he might be taunting Jane with her past, but it was explained in the end it was "accidental" that he picked her for a therapist.

I thought Jane came across as loud, bossy, rude and frankly, pretty dumb. Her speeches in the book that she just had enough energy to think "of me" were a turn off. Trixie's rant at Mike that only poor Jane mattered was mean, and I was extremely disappointed that Mike didn't flip HER the bird and cut his losses. Maybe Trixie was supposed to come across as "tough", but yikes - she was overly hostile. This was the first book/romance I have read where I actually wanted the hero to take off. Why would he want to hang around after Jane and her "family" stated several times they did not care about him?

And lastly, if you aren't an absolute dog lover - or worse, consider dogs pets and not four-legged humans - don't get this book. The dogs were center stage. That is probably a good selling point for dog lovers, but it just wasn't for me.

I have thoroughly enjoyed other Fern Michaels' books, but I found this one strangely incomplete. I would recommend Ms. Michaels' other books and suggest skipping this one.