12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll Be Thinking About The Characters Long After You're Done, February 16, 2008
A painful choice at a very young age sets into motion the futures of Meg Powell and all of those closest to her. Meg's decision poses a question we must then ask ourselves. What are we willing to do for love, out of a sense of obligation and responsibility? Can we really follow our heads instead of our hearts and still be happy?
Therese Fowler brings to us into the world of the Florida citrus growers and of the haves and the have-nots through her beautifully rendered imagery, and we understand the impact that a single choice can make. Life doesn't ever go as planned and when Meg is confronted with a situation where there is no good choice to be made, she's forced to re-examine all of her decisions.
While Meg struggles to come to terms with the hardest reality any human being can face, Savannah, her only child is courting danger. Savannah is a personable, intelligent teenager who believes she's capable of handling far more than her limited experience will really allow. Meg must come to terms with her own problems, and we watch helplessly as Savannah naively slips into a situation she's unequipped to handle.
The book is masterfully plotted, the characters are genuine and the story moves quickly. The author has managed to subtly weave literary imagery and the larger questions about parents and children, marriage, love, responsibility, regret, life and death into this fast moving story, without slowing down a thing.
Souvenir is heartbreaking and as we follow the characters, each with his or her story, we're never sure what will happen next. As each question is answered, each challenge resolved we recognize that the stories end in the only way they ever could.
This is a wonderful book, the writing is superb and the story will have you thinking, long after you read the final page.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heart Wrenching Story, March 16, 2008
Sometimes I wonder about Publisher's Weekly reviews. Why not let a woman who loves women's fiction and/or love stories review women's fiction and love stories? When I read the PW review of SOUVENIR I wondered if we'd read the same book. I also wondered if the reviewer was simply a frustrated writer who hasn't been able to sell his/her stuff. I'm a successful writer myself. I've sold 47 novels of romance and women's fiction. I also teach writing -- online now and at the University of Houston in the past. I know good writing. And SOUVENIR is a beautifully written book with terrific character development. And Meg, Carson, and Savannah are all terrific characters. I even liked Brian. Yes, he's a scmuck a lot of the time, but underneath there's a decent man. Thing is, real people are not all good or all bad, and real people make stupid choices. What we hope, though, is that we learn by making those mistakes. I loved this book and will recommend it to all my friends. I predict that Therese Fowler will be a huge star one day and my only advice to her is, WRITE FASTER. :) VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not inspiring, May 29, 2008
I was very excited to read this book after losing someone I loved to ALS. This book made me angry that after watching someone suffer not much was told about the disease or any of the new ways people are living longer with it. I did not feel the story ever fully developed the characters and I found myself not really caring. I think this book is fair and I finished it that was why I gave three stars. I don't really understand the 5 star reviews out there, I must have missed something, but I don't feel that I did. I never cried once in this story, and I cry very easily. So the raw emotion I was expecting never materialized. Find better novels, this is not worth all the hype.
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