The Life She Wants: A Novel Paperback – September 27, 2016

At first I thought the story was going to be pretty good but it quickly became repetitive and boring, a lot of man bashing. I normally like Ms. Carr's books but this one almost seems as if she was mad at someone (perhaps a man?!) when writing it. Even the older ladies that Emma's landlady Penny hung out with were given bad marriages except one of them...just too much. I didn't feel any attachment to the characters, most especially Emma the main character. Even though she had been through so much she wasn't loveable to me, barely likeable. That made reading the book more difficult I think because I just wasn't really interested in what would happen to her. Even conversations between her and Adam were robotic and not realistic sounding and as with a lot of books she and Adam of course jumped into bed together pretty quickly - I didn't feel the chemistry between them so far in the writing. I wasn't in a hurry to get back to reading this book and when I was reading it, it wasn't interesting enough to read much at a time.

This story was SO GOOD I don't even know where to begin. I did read one review and the reviewer said the book was "man bashing". I did not see that at all! A young girl/woman gets pregnant and the 19 year old father acted his age and was a jerk. Typical for his age and maturity level. But, he was what he was, no bashing needed, just facts showed he was a jerk. Then later a husband is convicted of fraud, etc. and bilking investors out of over a hundred million dollars. Just facts, he was a criminal. No man bashing needed that I could see.

I thought the story was wonderful. I walked around Christmas day with my Kindle in hand so I could read at every opportunity. I just hated to put the book down. The story is a very typical one, two best friends fall for the same guy. He is handsome, popular, athletic, etc. All the criteria for a first teen love. One friend gets him and the other remains best friends until she goes off to college and her life starts to expand. The two left behind still pal around together and as things usually do, they go too far and now she is pregnant with her best friends boyfriend. It all goes downhill from there. The two best friends part ways with ugly things being said on both sides. The boyfriend? Well, he goes on his merry way being an immature jackass. In his defense, he had a lot of good points, he just didn't know how to respond or behave. He was young, immature, no job to speak of, he really had nothing to offer the way he saw things.

Now 15 years later they are all adults. Life has not been bad for them, well it has for one of the women, but they are older, wiser, and trying to find where their lives are headed and how they are going to face their future. The story was so good, I loved it. There are a lot of characters involved, even Beatrice has a part!! I LOVED the Mom. Her daughter tries to tell her what to do and the mother puts her in her place real quick with no backtalk expected!! LOVED the way she handled that. Loved Adam. What a guy, everyone should be so lucky. I even liked the two gay friends. Everyone should have a gay friend. Even the teen, Maddie, shows a lot of maturity and fun in her character. It has a terrific ending. I did feel bad for Logan. I waned him to get a girl too!! He was just doing his job, one could see why he would be suspicious. I can remember when the Bernie Madoff thing hit the news I did not have a lot of sympathy for the wife. I figured she had to know!! Maybe she did, maybe not. this story gives you the opportunity to see an event from all sides and see how so many are effected by the actions of one! A bullet was too good for him!

Great read and I definitely recommend it. Of course, I have to admit I LOVE every book I have read by Ms. Carr and I have read a lot. This one was no exception. Great story, great characters, great ending! I loved it.

I was not paid for this review. I am not an author nor do I know one. I am not kin to this author. I am a reader and this is just my opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

I Think I own everything Robyn Carr has written, so obviously I'm a fan. I love her warm, real, human stories of lives much like mine and my friends. She has a knack for digging into the emotions involved in her story lines, in a rather unique way. I look forward to anything Robyn writes.

An excellent book by this talented storyteller. It was so exquisitely crafted, all the strands in this story were so very well braided together into this magnificent whole. Two girls, best friends, a friendship broken apart from a betrayal. One goes away, escaping, and ends marrying rich and then comes back home broke and persecuted. The other, out of guilt and necessity due to pregnancy, starts cleaning houses to support her baby and ends with a housecleaning business, a driven ruthless woman. When they meet again, there are all these feelings, loss, betrayal, guilt, humility, need. There's Riley's brother, who loved, lost and finds his love again. There are friends who re-connect, a woman who finds herself, the other who finally realizes what she had been feeling all along. It was a road of discovery, of making amends, of second chances, of forgiveness. It all got incredibly tangled and the untangling was glorious. I loved every minute of this book!