The Season of Second Chances: A Novel by Diane Meier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say about The Season of Second Chances:
An out-of-touch Columbia professor gets a new lease on life in Meier's unconvincing debut when she takes on a fixer-upper house and some equally messy relationships. Forty-eight-year-old Joy Harkness loves teaching, but hates the campus politics and her lonely Manhattan life. So when she's invited to be part of a new program at Amherst College, Joy jumps at the chance and buys a nearly condemnable Victorian with no clue of how much work will be involved in making the house livable. Enter Teddy Hennessy, a younger handyman with a domineering mother. Inevitably, Joy and Teddy date, and Joy fixates on liberating him from his mother and on finding him more prestigious employment. Meanwhile, Joy's female friendships and their respective crises redefine who Joy is and what she values. Unfortunately, Meier focuses too much on surface matters and has a tough time making Joy come to life; her relationship with Teddy, meanwhile, carries uncomfortable maternal overtones. There are too many cracks in the foundation on this one.
This is an excellent synopsis but I don't think the book is as bad as the reviewer describes it. It's entertaining and there are some all too real people in the story.
2011 No 176
The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read this book because I loved the cover. Unfortunately, the story went downhill from there and didn't plateau until it was in well-trodden territory. An American girl loves a lad but goes off in the late 19th century to Europe to find a titled husband to buy with her mother's money. Here's the summary from the Spokane Library web site:
Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.
2011 No 177
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