Customer Reviews

Reconsidering Riley

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

 

 

Jayne Murphy is your classic "girly-girl." Baby blue is her signature color and high-heeled shoes are her best friends. She's a city girl who loves her decaf soy lattes and rescuing the occasional puppy or homeless saxophone player. When the love of her life leaves her with a broken heart, Jayne channels her grief into creating a self-help book. The result is Heartbreak 101: Getting Over the Good-Bye Guys, a runaway bestseller.

Now researching her follow-up book, Jayne arrives in Arizona with five "breakup-ees" for a wilderness/open air therapy adventure. However, instead of the spa she expects, the wilderness lodge is really...a wilderness lodge with only one bathtub to be had in the entire place. To make matters worse, her wilderness guide turns out to be none other than her very own Mr. Good-Bye Guy, Riley Davis. Can Jayne survive five days in Riley's company? Can Jayne survive five days without a bath or latte in sight?

Nature photographer Riley Davis has never been able to stay long in one place. For Riley, there's always another assignment or adventure around the corner. Only once did Riley ever thought of settling down but a burst of panic made him sneak off into the night. When Riley decides to give his grandfather a hand by leading a group of women on a wilderness trek, he comes across his one true regret...Jayne Murphy. Can Riley make up for the hurt he's caused Jayne in the past? Can Riley survive five days of the Breakup-ees' anti-heartbreak workshop?

At first glance, Lisa Plumley's RECONSIDERING RILEY comes across as an example of the "chick lit" trend. However, underneath Jayne's leopard-print mirrored compact and baby blue ensembles lies a very likable heroine. She's smart, caring and a truly sympathetic heroine. Meanwhile, it's fun to watch commitment-shy Riley go down for the count. This hero-without-a-clue never suspects that he's the inspiration for Heartbreak 101 and is constantly putting his feet into his mouth. Several secondary characters, including the other breakup-ees and Riley's teen niece Alexis, provide the perfect foil. While the book's climax is a tad hokey, it doesn't detract from the story's overall charm and sassiness.

TheSchemer

Jayne Murphy is urban chic standing on top of the world with her best selling relationship book, Heartbreak 101, that uses her sorrowful experience with photojournalist hunk Riley Davis. Jayne fell in love with Riley, but he did not miss a heartbeat as he skipped town without a look back. Her current project is a retreat workshop for five "dump-ees" that she plans to use for her next self-help book.

However, the tour guide turns out to be clueless Riley who does not realize he is the model starring in Heartbreak 101. Neither one expected the other at this retreat, but there is no question that urban Jayne and wilderness Riley have different opinions on life yet both desperately desire the other. With no common ground except love, this second chance seems doomed to failure once again.

Lisa Plumley is gaining a deserved reputation for her amusing romances and her latest tale RECONSIDERING RILEY, will strengthen her standing among sub-genre fans. The story line is a delightful fluff that is fun from the beginning, but really hooks the audience at the retreat. The key to this comical, at times slapstick, romp is the cast. The two charming lead characters and the support group turn the novel into a marvelous merry mirth.

Harriet Klausner

Reconsidering Riley by Lisa Plumley Is truly a opposites attract novel Jayne Murphy is your typical "girlie-girl" her whole wardrobe consist of her favorite color baby blue and she can not go anywhere without her bath products. What happens when Jayne an author of a self-help realtionship novel Heartbreak 101:Getting Over The Goodbye Guys decides to hold a retreat for some of her fans who are affectionately called the dump-ees and her ex-boyfriend the subject of her book is leading the group Utter and Complete Chaos!!

Riley Davis Jayne's ex doesn't know that he is the man who inspired her Heartbreak 101 novel and is even more surprised when he founds out Jayne is the author he takes it upon himself to help "get over the bozo" that made her write the book. He proposes a plan to Jayne they can have a "fling" for closure Jayne agrees but she has conditions. But Riley gets more then just his casual fling.

My first read by Lisa Plumley and it was very enjoyable. Riley and Jayne are great characters and their romance was very touching and heartwarming some of my favorite parts are the workshops that Jayne holds for the "dump-ees"Riley not knowing what to do during the workshops decides to conduct his own workshops it is truly hilarious. I found myself laughing throughout this novel. I have now become an instant fan of Lisa Plumley

When Jayne Murphy is unceremoniously dumped by her photographer boyfriend Riley Davis, she doesn't get mad; she gets even. She pens a best-selling self-help book called "Heartbreak 101," highlighting an unnamed Riley as the classic "good-bye guy." When she has to write a follow up, she is out of ideas, but agrees to attend a workshop in Arizona with fellow dumpees, only to discover that it is not the spa that she expected, but rather a true wilderness lodge. Even worse, the guide for their excursions turns out to be Riley, who is angry to learn about how some guy wronged Jayne, and is devoted to helping her get over the louse, not realizing it's him.

Riley considers Jayne is greatest regret - he panicked and fled in the night when the relationship started spawning roots. But is he ready to settle down now with the quintessential girly-girl? Once you get over the high maintenance and whininess of Jayne, the story gains momentum and the two opposites grow on you.

At times sappy and other times hilarious, Plumley's first novel displays her flair for writing romantic comedy, and readers will find themselves laughing out loud at this fish out water love story.

This was a new author for me, just one of those books I happened upon and it grabbed my interest. The plot sounded like it would be a cute fun read, but I'm not sure I was really hooked into this story. I've got to say, I had higher hopes for this book. I thought the cover was cute and the blurb on the back drew me, but I feel like the story just didn't hold up for me. The storyline was cute and kind of fun, but I wasn't feeling the connection with Jayne and Riley. There was definitely an attraction there and these two had a history, but I just felt like something was missing. What??? I couldn't really put a finger on it.

Riley flip flopped between denying there were feelings there to acknowledging he never got over Jayne, to starting to think there was something there and then cutting that thought off. He knew he was still feeling an intese attraction to Jayne and wanted to be able to explore that attraction, but he also wanted to be able to walk away when things were said and done. He'd go from saying something totally heartwarming to Jayne and then turn around and say something totally ridiculous. It made it hard for me to pinpoint his character. He seemed like a man's man and sometimes he seemed uncomfortable with Jayne's girly persona and other times he seemed to embrace it. Honestly, I couldn't believe how utterly clueless he was to how he left things with Jayne and how there was no way he was the one who inspired her heartbreak 101 book. You don't just up and leave a girl you've been seeing for 6 months with no goodbye and expect her to be ok with it. I wanted to smack him upside the head with that one! :)

Jayne on the other hand never really got over Riley, though she kept telling herself she was. Her heartbreak over Riley inspired her book, Heartbreak 101 that became a best seller. As she's researching for a next book, her agent sends her and some of her readers on what Jayne assumes is a spa vacation to try out some theories she'll be putting in her next book. What her agent actually sends her and the heartbrekees to is NOT a spa and is actually a rustic old lodge in the middle of nowhere where they are expected to *eeep* hike!! This lodge is owned by none other than Riley's grandparents. After his grandpa was told to take it easy from the advice of his docotr, Riley steps in to lead the group on the 5 day hiking trip and this is where riley and Jayne meet again

I really liked Jayne, but thought her character bounced around a little to weak and insecure to strong and confidant. That's not necessarily a bad thing. She was strong and confidant when the situation required it and insecure when her walls were down. I was able to connect more with Jayne, maybe that's because Riley was sometimes so oblivious :) but wasn't really feeling some of the tactics Jayne was usuing with her breakupees. I thought some of them may have been a little cheesy. Jayne and her breakupees had their saying they used several times through-out the book "If you look good, you feel good" complete with the compact mirrors they looked into as they said it. There were many "yay's" in this book that I could of done without, I couldn't tell you how many times it was shouted out. I don't know why it bothered me, it just didn't feel like people shoutying "Yay" should be in the story.

Now that I've said all that, I think this book is cute and fun, just didn't work for me. This is a new author and I am still planning to check out her other work. Just because I didn't get into this one, doesn't mean the next one wont grab me

I couldn't finish it. I am a great fan of Lisa Plumley's and have read and enjoyed several of her other books. This was not one of them. I tried reading it, I read over half of it and never "got it".

I was expecting a fun, lighthearted romance involving a woman and her ex-boyfriend discovering each other again in the great outdoors. That is not what I found.

Ultimately, I liked Riley and his niece, but had very little interest in Jayne. I found her shallow and her obsession with blue as a "signature color" was a little ridiculous. Are there women that actually do that?

I enjoyed Riley's niece and was far more interested in her and her relationship with her mother and boyfriend than what was going on between Riley and Jayne.

I did not enjoy this book at all. I felt it was an insult to women everywhere. I did not feel anything for Riley and Jayne and the silly way the heroine was portrayed was insulting.