Customer Reviews

Stay a Little Longer

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

 

 

I've read a lot of Dorothy Garlock's books. I thought I knew what to expect from her. I expected the richness of The Listening Sky, the depth of Mother Road, and the passion of Ribbon in the Sky. I expected three dimensional characters in well defined plots. I did not get what I expected with this book. This book hurried through a flat landscape to get to a romantic love that was not believable. At no time did my heart get involved with this story. In fact I found I couldn't like the good people and couldn't dislike the bad ones. The best part of the whole book was the dog.

In 1918 in Carlson, Minnesota, Alice Tucker gives birth to Charlotte with her sister Rachel Watkins as her midwife. Soon afterward Alice dies. Rachel knew she really died when her spouse Mason was killed in WWI; she loathes the dead man for deserting his wife.

By 1926, Rachel is bone tired as the town's midwife, running her family's boardinghouse, caring for her drunk uncle and shell-shocked mom, and most important raising her niece, Charlotte. In a remote dilapidated cabin resides a scarred male. When Charlotte meets the sick man, she wants to help him. She persuades her Aunt Rachel to nurture him back to health. As he heals, he works as a handyman making repairs to the boardinghouse. Rachel and her grateful employee become friends as each appreciate the serenity the other brings. However, Mason's affluent unscrupulous brother Zachary the banker covets the Watkins' property and causes problems and ultimately a tragedy with his machinations, but also leads Rachel and the stranger to understand their relationship especially after the truth surfaces.

With a great late twist, Stay a Little Longer is an emotional profound Americana tale that focuses on the aftermath of WWI several years after the Armistice in a small town in Minnesota. The strong ensemble cast brings to life the era while Rachel holds the deep story line together. Although Zachary feels somewhat like a caricature of an avaricious banker (no oxymoron asides) such as an obese Snidely Whiplash, fans will relish this terrific historical.

Harriet Klausner

I usually enjoy reading Garlock's Americana novels. But this book seemed rushed....as if the author phoned it in. The antagonist and conflict was not very convincing.

The hero was one-dimensional and the reason he gave for staying away for 8 years was very weak. Cardboard kind of guy. Didn't care one way or the other about him.

We did get a bit more info and depth to the heroine - however I never felt the close "mother-daughter" relationship with Charlotte that you would expect - since she raised the child.

The love story - I didn't even notice it until the author wrote that they loved each other. Really? Never got that. Not a bit. I was expecting it...hoping for it...but I never read about it.

Over all, I am glad I borrowed this from the library and did not buy it. I was disappointed and that will color my anticipation of any future books. One of Garlock's best series was the With Hope, With Song, etc...

I have loved every Dorothy Garlock book I've ever read (and I have read them all) but this book was boring. From the beginning I was disappointed and couldn't get interested in the story but I figured it would get better. When I was halfway through I gave up.

I picked up this book at a secondhand store for 98 cents. I overpaid! With all the glowing comments from respected reviewers (granted, talking about Garlock's other works) and the banner that Garlock is a "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR", I was expecting at least a decent read. It would be stretching it quite a bit to say this was "decent", as I thought it was actually quite bad.

First off, the writing is so amateurish (didn't your college writing teacher ever tell you not to rely on exclamation marks for impact, Ms. Garlock?), that I thought, "This must have been her first novel -- she must have gotten better since then." However, in looking at the date of publication, I found that I was mistaken. Maybe her maid wrote this for her and turned it in under her name? Overall, the writing is flat, lacking in skill, depth, flair or finesse. And please, spare me such B-movie touches as the 'big reveal' of Mason's face to Eliza IN A FLASH OF LIGHTNING -- no, I'm not being facetious: she really is that corny.

Then there is the "hero" himself. If he really did stay away for the reasons he said, he is a weak and terribly vain man who knows nothing of real love. Of course, he proves that by confessing his love for Rachel, the sister of his dead wife -- when he only just found out his wife was dead a few days before! I mean, really, if my husband thought I was alive, was harboring this incredible love for me for eight years, then found out I was dead and got busy with MY sister (or any other woman, for that matter) in a couple of days, I'd say I was well rid of the loser! I found nothing at all admirable in this character, nor was I interested in any of the other cardboard cutouts in this book. Garlock doesn't even bother to come up with her own characters in some instances: Rachel's uncle is a carbon copy of the huge-gutted, amiable town drunk, "Otis", from the Andy Griffith show -- and guess what Garlock named HER huge-gutted, amiable town drunk -- OTIS!

Why did I read it all the way through, you wonder? Because I simply had to see if it could possibly be as thoroughly and utterly weak as I perceived it to be in the beginning. I figured it would have to redeem itself somehow, but noooo, not so.

Now, I will admit that I am not a huge consumer of romance novels or pop fiction, but if this is what a "best selling" and very popular author in the genre has to offer, I can't see how anyone could be satisfied with this drivel!

Good Dorothy Garlock book, but then none of hers are bad. I don't even have to look at the review on the back of the book, If it is a Dorothy Garlock book the only thing I look for is to see if it is a reprint as I have read all of her books.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I did not enjoy this book.
I have read just about all of Dorothy Garlock's books, when they come out I just automatically buy them because I always know they will be great....not so for this one.
I felt that it was a boring book, very slow paced. Mason Tucker, who went away to war shortly after getting married, was a poor excuse for a man with the shallow reason he gave for not coming back to his wife who he supposedly loved. He finally decides to come back and finds out his beloved wife is dead and he has a daughter. (She is eight, he has been gone that long) I didn't really see any mourning or sorrow on his part. The romance I guess I missed because it wasn't there for me.
Sorry to say I was very disappointed with this book. Not really much depth or feeling in it for me, very disappointing.

I don't read a whole lot of general market romance just because I don't need all of the strong language and sex. However I have found a few authors that I enjoy whose books are not rife with what I deem to be objectionable content, Dorothy Garlock is one of those authors. While her books do contain some language and maybe a love scene or two they are relatively tame compared to other books on the market. Stay a Little Longer is no exception. While I didn't find it to be focused on the romance as much as characters letting go of their pasts it still was a sweet story with somewhat of a beauty and the beast theme. There aren't a whole lot of sparks or passion, it's just a sweet, gentle romance that develops over time, not right away. If you like drama this book certainly has that too along with a few "bad guys." If you're looking for a spring read I would check this one out at the library or buy the trade paperback, I'm not sure I would shell out the $24.99 for the hardcover. Overall I liked the book and would read Ms. Garlock's future releases!

*I received my free review copy from Anna Balasi @ Hachette Book Group.*

I love some of Dorothy Garlock's books, but this one wasn't her best. It's just too predictible and extremely repetitious. How many times can the main characters go over the same over and over in their heads? What a headache they must have. The side plot with the "danger", the bad brother, fizzles out to nothing. I'm sorry, Ms. Garlock but you put no effort into it. Also, I didn't feel this book was very real, they are in a boarding house from the 1800's or beginning of the 1900's, right? The walls shouldn't be very thick and the place can't be that large...yet all kinds of loud discussions are being held without nobody else hearing...right. Is Rachel's mother deaf? It's never discussed but she has no idea what goes on under her own roof. Sorry, just not good enough.

I am a long-time fan of Dorothy Garlock. Unlike many books of the romance genre, they always take place at a real time and her characters are always ordinary people, who think and act like people who lived in that time and context. Her main characters, unlike those in many romances, have both strengths and weaknesses. To add a little spice and tension, there is always at least one bad guy. "Stay A Little Longer" follows the same formula. It takes place in the northern midwest a few years after World War I. The male protagonist, Mason, fought and was seriously wounded in that war. The diagnosis PTSD did not exist then. But he probably also suffered from it. The state of medicine is true to the time. People knew about contagion, broken bones etc. But they didn't know about mental illness and did not have antibiotics to treat pneumonia. People understood about contagion and infection. So childbirth was much safer than it had been a century ago. But, in rural areas, the mortality rate for mothers giving birth was much higher than it is today. Economically, it was a period of boom and corruption. Although cars existed, they were a luxury of the rich and people in small towns usually walked to their destinations.

Within this context Garlock tells a story of of redemption for Mason, the male protagonist, and reward for Rachel, the unappreciated female protagonist. Theirs is not the the exciting, breathtaking, sexually charged love of youth. Rather, it is a slow awakening and recognition of an unsought, unexpected emotion between adults supporting and tending each other through the complex problems of adulthood. As an adult, I always enjoy reading about the wild romance among youth - I remember it well! But I also enjoy reading about adult love - something I can identify with now. It is deeper, more considered, and more nourishing than the love among the young.

As always in Garlock novels, the bad guy is too bad to be real. But he adds a little excitement to the story.