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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Did not hold my attention, September 9, 2005
This review is from: Seven Sunny Days (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
Three gal pals (bride-to-be Rachel, commitment-phobe supermodel Yaslyn, and newly divorced Carrie Ann) head to the sunny shores of a Turkish resort for a relaxing "hen" week. While there, they run into a motley crew of guests and resort employees, as they attempt to make Rachel's last week of singledom memorable. The resort is full of clichéd characters - the tennis instructor/resort lothario, the clingy nerd, cheerleader tour guides, and of course lipstick lesbians that like to put on a show.
The opening scene is hysterical - her friends have put something in her luggage which sets off the security. Unfortunately, that is really the only funny scene; the rest of the book just meanders along. While in Turkey, the girls seem to keep getting stuck with another Brit couple - Marcus and Sally, who are on the verge of divorce. Sally is such a pill, that I found it hard to understand why Marcus would want to stay with such a shrew.
Each woman has a problem that needs resolution - Rachel hates confrontation, and the mother-in-law from hell runs all over her. Carrie Ann is trying to lie under the radar, but every inappropriate male seems to have latched onto her, while her only solace is playing chess with brainy Frenchman, Axel. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out Yaslyn's problem, what with all the barfing - despite having a man pining for her back home and ready to make a commitment, she laps up all the male attention she receives, including the tennis instructor, Gilles.
There really was not a lot offered in the book to hold my attention. Perhaps there were too many characters; perhaps none of the "problems" were serious enough to capture your attention... I was pretty disappointed with this after the great cover description. All in all - I think that this was a pretty forgettable novel.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Zippy and Fast, August 16, 2005
This review is from: Seven Sunny Days (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
An easy beach read is what this book appears to be from it's cover. And an easy beach read it is.
This book is just something nice to pick up if your brain is fried from finishing some heavy psychological thriller or biography. There are no frills, no major plot twists, and the story is very simple to follow. The chapters are short and varied, and the story is told in the past and present, through a number of different character's perspectives.
The main 3 characters in the book is group of women on a 'hen week' or a week-long bachelorette party in Turkey. Rachel, the non-confrontational bride, is often in the middle of situations she doesn't want to be in. She spends the holiday feebly trying to battle a group of snippy french women and her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
Yaslyn is a model close to Rachel's age, who is on the brink of being proposed to, but isn't sure she wants to be tied down. Her holiday has her torn between the life she used to live, and the strange changes she is being faced with.
Carrie-Ann is the oldest woman, recently divorced, who spends her trip moping and trying to avoid the attention of some undesirable men.
Thrown into all of this is a million subplots, including a horny tennis instructor, a couple on the brink of separation, and a forlorn chess tutor all trying to sort out their feelings for various people staying at the Turkey resort.
Manby does a good job of keeping the story moving, although the seven sunny days are quite stretched out! This wouldn't be a bad movie really, save for a GLARING oversight by the author on a condition known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. All in all a light, frothy read.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fine relationship drama, April 27, 2005
This review is from: Seven Sunny Days (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
Her two best friends Carrie Ann Murphy and Yaslyn Stimpson take engaged Rachel Buckley on a final fling before she says I do. The trio goes exotic Club Aegee in Bodrin, Turkey seeking males to pamper them for a week. Her buddies make sure that Carrie, a senior manager at Office Angels, is in a festive mood from the start when they slip a vibrator into her luggage only to have customs see it.
At the resort, Rachel realizes her pals have issues. Yaslyn fears commitment though her boyfriend back home wants for them to move to the next level in their relationship. Carrie Ann has just had her divorce legalized and so is down on marriage and men except as disposable boy toys. As the trio shares a room for partying and all night binges the vast chasm on male relationships surface in an ugly manner; Rachel wonders whether adding a husband means subtracting her two best friends.
Much more a relationship drama especially between the three friends than a chick lit tale though the narration is from the latter 101, fans will enjoy the escapades and deep look at the complexities of human interaction. The three females are a delightful fully developed characters and the support cast brings out the best and as often the worst in each of them. Though the subplots can become overwhelming (flow charting will not help) that just emphasizes the baggage people bring to multifaceted interactivities.
Harriet Klausner
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