Someone Like You [Paperback]

Barbara Bretton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2005

A master at touching readers' hearts, Barbara Bretton explores the emotional journey of two sisters and the healing truth of an unforgettable family legacy when an unexpected reunion inspires a better understanding of secrets and sacrifices.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the seventies, Mimi and Mark Doyle were famous folk singers. Although they had two daughters, Catherine and Joely, their devotion was to each other. Then one day Mark goes out for a new guitar string and a pack of cigarettes and never comes back. For more than 30 years, Mimi waits for her beloved husband to return. As she dwells within a haze of alcohol and illusions, her daughters grow up on their own. Catherine, now pregnant, raises sheep for the high-fashion sweaters she creates. Joely holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and lives in Scotland with a widower and his precocious daughter. When Mimi suffers a stroke and sets the house on fire, Joely feels obligated to go home and help Catherine take care of her. Bretton, with her insightful observations, gets to the core of her characters in this novel about the many roles women play--wife, daughter, sister, mother, lover--whether by choice or by the force of circumstance. Commitment, avoidance, love, and guilt--Bretton, a master storyteller, superbly dramatizes a great range of emotions in this compelling tale. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A monumental talent."
-- Affaire de Coeur (Affaire de Coeur ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (July 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425203883
• ISBN-13: 978-0425203880
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the month of February 1982 I wrote and sold my first novel. And no, I wouldn't believe it either if it hadn't happened to me. I sent in my manuscript on Thursday February 21, 1982 and four days later the telephone rang and I heard the amazing words, "We want to buy your book." How I wish you could have seen me. I was standing by the kitchen door of our North Babylon house, the picture of cool sophistication, as I listened to Vivian Stephens explain the terms of the deal to me. You would have thought I'd sold a first book every single day of my life. Yes, I said. Sounds wonderful. Thank you so much for calling. I look forward to our association. That cool sophistication hung on until I hung up the phone, took a deep breath, then promptly threw up on my shoes.

I was thirty-one years old, unagented, unschooled, unfamiliar with anything to do with the business of publishing. To put it mildly, I was in shock. My husband was working in Manhattan at the time (and finishing up his degree at night) so it would be hours until I could break the news to him. This was too exciting to waste on a phone call. I wanted to see his face when I told him that my dream had finally come true -- and came with a $6000 advance!

He pulled into the driveway at midnight. I was waiting in the doorway, holding a bottle of champagne and two glasses. I didn't have to say a word. He knew right away and the look of joy and pride in his eyes warms me now, years later, long after the advance faded into memory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It Left Me Wanting More, July 31, 2005

By 

Butterscotch (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Someone Like You (Paperback)

There is nothing wrong with the quality of writing in this book - in terms of romance authors, Bretton is actually among the best at being literate and having a story to tell. This story is about family and the ties that do (or do not) bind them; two sisters who are living on different continents, come together when their mother is injured in a terrible accident. The sisters, both of whom are not particularly close to the their mother (or each other, it seems) are not thrilled to be back home again, but come back anyway. Catherine and Joely (the sisters) are both involved in romantic relationships of some sort, and are having a hard time being truly in love, mainly because of their rotten childhood. It sounds like a good story, and it starts out that way... BUT... it doesn't really live up to expectation. The girls' mother, Mimi, never says a word throughout the entire book, and she is supposedly the main problem both of these girls face, and the relationships that the girls have with their boyfriends is really convoluted and a lot is left unexplained. For instance, we don't even discover how Joely knows her current boyfriend for several chapters - they seemed so distant that I thought Joely was a nanny and not a girlfriend. Basically, there is no romance in this story and I suppose I was expecting some of that. I wouldn't recommend this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Someone Like You, July 5, 2005

By 

AK "Bro" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Someone Like You (Paperback)

For the last quarter of a centry, Mimi Doyle has lived on the hope that Mark Doyle would return home from his little trip to "get guitar strings". Her two daughters, Cat and Joely, suffered no such delusions. The two girls became no nonsense young women who held love at arm's length. Just as they are beginning to let the walls around their hearts soften, Mimi's latest crisis tests her children in every way possible. Whether due to substance abuse, a stroke, or some unknown cause, Mimi passes out one night, setting her home on fire. She survives; now, Cat and Joely have to return home to pick up the pieces. Cat is in her first trimester, but her love life is still a bit uneasy. The man in her life will have to accept the new challenges in her life, plus decide how he wants his role in it defined. Joely's entered a seriuos relationship, but it's on shaky ground when she gets the call. With her lover in Japan at a meeting, she has no choice but to pack up his little girl and fly from Scotland to Maine. Her William faces even more tests than Cat's Michael. Throw in tabloid reporters on the scent of "blood" and an unexpected reunion or two, and you have the recipe for a moving story that will give those on the rocky road to a happy ending hope.

**** Ms. Bretton is one of those writers who writes far more good than the opposite; and this may be her deepest, most complex, and heart touching work to date. ****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre 2.5 star melodrama, March 21, 2007

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Someone Like You (Paperback)

News that her mom's in the hospital has Joely reluctantly boarding a plane from Scotland with her lover's daughter in tow to return to the Maine hometown that she'd rather forget. Raised by her sister Cat (her absentee mother was too busy wallowing in self pity when dad left home 27 years earlier to get guitar strings and never returned), Joely never had a normal upbringing. Getting reacquainted with her sister brings up past memories of their fractured childhood. When she has difficulty reaching William, she questions if the only thing they have in common is his daughter Annabelle. With a potential job offer in place outside of London, Joely has some soul searching to do. Meanwhile Cat is dealing with a surprise pregnancy and is not sure how the father will fit into her life.

When the media finds out about her mother's hospital stay, news crews and paparazzi set up camp and hound the family. Her mother and father, Mark and Mimi Doyle, made up a popular 60's folk duo. The renewed interest in her mother's health has some old ghosts knocking at the family's door.

Despite being under 350 pages, I found the story to be long and over populated. Bretton introduced secondary characters that did little to move the story along; some were introduced then abandoned altogether. The book itself was well written, I just found it... well, boring, most characters underdeveloped or unlikable. It made it hard to really care how it all played out.