Where Is He Now? [Mass Market Paperback]

Jennifer Greene (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those who enjoy Jennifer Crusie's intelligent romantic capers should give Greene's latest contemporary romance (after The Woman Most Likely To...) a test drive. When Jeanne Claire Cassiday's 15-year high school reunion looms on the horizon, she realizes it's the perfect chance to learn why her long-ago sweetheart, Nate Donneli, dumped her in a tersely worded letter only a few months after graduation. If she can understand the reason behind this turning point, she figures she might be able to understand why she made poor choices in the following years and lost her idealism. For Nate, Jeanne Claire's reappearance brings back memories of the optimistic kid he used to be and revives the lust and love that he felt for her years earlier. Though the cover copy suggests that the book's title refers to hunting down old boyfriends, its deeper meaning reflects the protagonists' search for the dreamers they used to be-and the people they want to be again. Greene's crisp, pulls-no-punches humor hits the funny bone every time, and her characters' introspective personalities and yearning to be better people will endear them to readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In high school Jeanne thought Nate would love her forever, but he abruptly dumped her right after graduation. Jeanne never got over Nate, and no man she met afterwards could come close to being all that he was for her. As their 15-year high-school reunion approaches, Jeanne decides to find out once and for all what prompted Nate to abandon her. When she finally summons up enough courage to call him, she discovers that he had a pretty good reason for his actions, even if he didn't trust her enough to share it with her at the time. Now after only just one minute with Jeanne, Nate realizes that she is the only woman for him and that he can't afford to lose her again. Combining expertly crafted characters with lovely prose flavored with sassy wit, Greene constructs a superb tale of love lost and found, dreams discarded and rediscovered, and the importance of family and friendship that is certain to charm and delight any contemporary romance reader. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380819732
• ISBN-13: 978-0380819737
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Greene has sold over 80 books in the contemporary romance genre, and has accumulated a wealth of writing awards, including 5 Ritas from Romance Writers of America, The RWA Hall of Fame Award, Lifetime Achievement award, and both Lifetime and Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times. She has been on numerous best seller lists from the very start of her career, and reviewers' comments have included phrases, including:
"The author most likely to steal your heart." (Susan Elizabeth Phillips)
"Warm, wise and wonderfully satisfying" (Chicago Tribune)
"Vivid, fresh, and often funny" (Publishers Weekly)
"Insightful and compelling" (RT Bookclub)
Jennifer lives in the countryside around Lake Michigan. For years, she and her husband raised newfoundlands. She loves history, traveling--and of course, reading. She's taken in every animal that shows up at her back door, from kittens to dogs, raccoons to squirrels, and admits to being incapable of saying no--a terrible character trait that she claims to have passed onto her kids.
Jennifer has been an active supporter for women's groups all her life, and has also written under the names of Jeanne Grant, Jessica Massey, and Alison Hart.
You're welcome to contact Jennifer through her website, at:
www.jennifergreene.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good beach read, April 23, 2005

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Where Is He Now? (Mass Market Paperback)

WHERE IS HE NOW by Jennifer Greene
April 23, 2005

In WHERE IS HE NOW by Jennifer Greene, Nate Donneli and Jeanne Claire Cassiday are two ex-lovers who were always meant to be. A fifteen-year class reunion is coming up, and this event could be what brings the two together again.

At one time in her life, Jeanne thought for sure that her life and Nate's would be tied together forever. They were sweethearts in high school, but shortly after they both started college, Nate broke off their relationship with no explanation whatsoever.

Jeanne was heartbroken, but in order to get over him she puts her soul into her father's business as a convention event manager, dealing with planning and booking events and also making sure their business stays solvent. While her father was excellent with the customers and clients, he was awful with money.

It is now 15 years later and Jeanne finds herself in charge of the class reunion, along with her friend Tamara, the friend who ended up pursuing her dream and becoming a rock star, and the class nerd Arnold. Jeanne is asked to contact Nate, in the hopes that he will help them with the main speech at the reunion, since he was the one labeled "most likely to succeed". Nate, however, ended up working at his father's garage instead of being the architect he always wanted to be. He felt he was a failure, despite helping to raise his brothers and sisters after his father's death, as well as keeping the business alive.

After learning what happened to Nate after graduation, Jeanne realizes what a success Nate's life really was, but someone needed to point it out to him. There were also feelings of love and attraction between them, and she wanted to resolve any of these feelings before she moved on with her life. She recognized that her love for Nate had stood between her and all the love relationships she had since high school, including a marriage that failed miserably.

Nate now has a successful luxury car business, as well as a precocious teenage daughter. A lot has happened since graduation, and both Claire and Nate slowly rediscover each other and catch up on each other's lives after graduation. Neither had expected to find each other doing what they were doing now, and it was a learning experience for each of them to understand whether their dreams had been fulfilled or not

An interesting subplot involves Arnold, who always had a huge crush on Tamara, and Tamara, who felt that her life was a failure. As the two of them work on the class reunion party, Tamara sees a different side of Arnold and learns a little about her own feelings.

I found myself liking this book, although it wasn't the perfect novel. I enjoyed the various subplots, but felt that there were too many things going on for one book. The story of Arnold and Tamara should have been taken out and saved for a separate book, while the focus should have been on Nate, Claire, and their two families. There was not enough attention made to Claire's father, who I thought had an important story that could have been explored. Overall, however, I feel that this is a book worth reading. It's a good beach read, or can be saved for a rainy day.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second chance at romance for the class couple, June 13, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: Where Is He Now? (Mass Market Paperback)

After a failed marriage and new romance with the "perfect" man, Jeanne Clair Cassiday realizes that her romance woes can be attributed to one thing - lack of closure from the one that got away. As her 15-year high school reunion is approaching, she is assigned the task of looking up Nate Donneli, the class heartthrob who was most likely to succeed. After dumping her his freshman year at Princeton, she never heard from him or of him again.

When she stops at his father's car repair shop, she is shocked to discover that Nate Sr. no longer runs the place; the new owner is her Nate. After catching up with each other, she is shocked to find out that he has a 14-year old daughter, and wrongly assumes that she was dumped because of his father status. Turns out that Nate had to give up his dreams of becoming an architect so that he could take care of his siblings after his father suddenly died, leaving the family with very little, but the repair shop (that Nate managed to make very successful). He daughter Caitlin was the product of a one night stand and the mother wanted nothing to do with Nate or Caitlin, so he obtained full custody.

Part of the charm of the story is how quickly the two can assume their old roles - illustrated by how they immediately refer to each other via the pet names (Peanut and Shadow) they gave each other 15 years earlier. Before they can resume their relationship, she needs to break him of his nasty habit to take care of everyone, and open up and let someone else take the burden for a change, and help him find the thief who has been embezzling from his company.

There is a cute secondary romance with the class nerd and a former rock star that took a wrong turn in her career and became an addict.

It is a very well written and tender story that will tug at your heart strings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It was Good, August 24, 2006

By 

IndigoRaiyne (Aiken, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Is He Now? (Mass Market Paperback)

Overall, I enjoyed this book. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. I liked the characters, I was especially fond of the relationship between Tamara and Arnold and thought they were deserving of their own story, as their relationship/romance didn't really add anything to the relationship between Nate and Jeanne Claire.

I enjoyed the writing, the story flowed well, (I read it in two days) and the conflicts between Jeanne and her Dad and Nate and his family were interesting. I think the thing that bothered me though, and keeps me from giving this book a higher rating is the two conflicts are never really resolved in a satisfactory way. They just sort of end.

I hate that. I hate that I spent the whole book, all three hundred and some odd pages, worrying about the theif in Nate's garage and whether or not Jeanne Claire's dad will make it in business without her, and I get to the end of the book and both conflicts are resolved almost as an after thought.

Aside from that though, it's worth reading.