Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A beautifully written page-turner of a love story. On a Night Like This is a sad and funny and wonderful story of a woman's love for her daughter and her acceptance of herself.
Rating: 
Summary: A POIGNANT VOICE PERFORMANCE
Review: A seasoned performer, Barbara Goodson, has many outstanding voice overs to her credit in both film and television (most notably the Emmy-Award winning Winnie the Pooh). She gives a poignant performance of this story about the right love at the wrong time. Another veteran of Winnie the Pooh, Michael Gough, has done outstanding work on many animated programs, and is the recipient of a pair of awards for Los Angeles theatre productions. His reading is full-bodied and strong as he brings the words of our hero to life. Once listeners hear, "On a night like this, I could fall in love...," they'll not soon forget him. Luke Bellingham is 25 years out of high school and successful - at least as a screenwriter. His love life's a bit out of sync as his wife recently left him. It fall to Luke to find the missing among his high school classmates as preparations are made for the 25th reunion. First on his list is Blair Clemens, a woman who has been much on his mind over the years. Blair is now a single mom who is dying of cancer. She has a 16-year-old daughter, and works as a chef at an upscale restaurant. Although Luke and Blair have not seen each other in all of the passing years, once they do meet again the attraction is instantaneous and undeniable. For Blair it seems here's the brass ring at last. But, should she catch it knowing she won't be able to hold it for very long? Get out the tissues to listen to this one. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: A POIGNANT VOICE PERFORMANCE
Review: A seasoned performer, Barbara Goodson, has many outstanding voice overs to her credit in both film and television (most notably the Emmy-Award winning Winnie the Pooh). She gives a poignant performance of this story about the right love at the wrong time. Another veteran of Winnie the Pooh, Michael Gough, has done outstanding work on many animated programs, and is the recipient of a pair of awards for Los Angeles theatre productions. His reading is full-bodied and strong as he brings the words of our hero to life. Once listeners hear, "On a night like this, I could fall in love...," they'll not soon forget him. Luke Bellingham is 25 years out of high school and successful - at least as a screenwriter. His love life's a bit out of sync as his wife recently left him. It fall to Luke to find the missing among his high school classmates as preparations are made for the 25th reunion. First on his list is Blair Clemens, a woman who has been much on his mind over the years. Blair is now a single mom who is dying of cancer. She has a 16-year-old daughter, and works as a chef at an upscale restaurant. Although Luke and Blair have not seen each other in all of the passing years, once they do meet again the attraction is instantaneous and undeniable. For Blair it seems here's the brass ring at last. But, should she catch it knowing she won't be able to hold it for very long? Get out the tissues to listen to this one. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: A Bittersweet Romance Crafted Beautifully by Ellen Sussman
Review: Blair and her daughter, Amanda, live contentedly in a tiny, funky cottage in San Francisco's Haight district. Blair loves her job as a chef and is close to 16-year-old Amanda. But Blair is dying. As the story opens, she has just received a devastating diagnosis of advanced melanoma. There is no cure; she won't survive long. Blair is using sex, alcohol, drugs, movies and work to distract herself from her inevitable death and her concern for Amanda's future. Luke is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter. His perfect life is destroyed when his adored wife, Emily, abruptly walks out on him. Unable to write, he moves from his San Francisco home to a secluded mountain cabin to read and build furniture. Luke's dog, Sweetpea, is his companion, providing comic relief and company. No matter what Luke is doing, though, he obsesses about and yearns for Emily. Where is she? Why did she leave? When Luke discovers what appears to be evidence that Emily was involved in an affair, he leaves his mountain hideout to find her. He questions her sister and then goes undercover to pinpoint Emily's location. When Luke finds what he believes to be her residence, he spends hours sitting in his car and staring at the mystery house. Luke is haunted by the ghost of his marriage and eaten up by his imaginings of Emily with another man. If she would only come home to him, he believes he could be whole again. Blair and Luke's lives intersect when Luke is asked to contact classmates for their 25th high school reunion. She remembers him as a golden boy; he vaguely recalls her as being a silent, loner hippie. The two meet --- and are instantly, magnetically attracted to each other. Luke is willing, but Blair squelches the notion: "On a night like this, I could fall in love." "Don't bother," Blair said. "I'm dying." Blair and Luke's relationship is a constant struggle against extreme odds. Their impediments are enormous: Blair's fatal illness, Amanda's resentment toward the interloper in her mother's life, and the reappearance of Emily with startling news and intentions. Blair also discovers that Luke has seemingly used a violent tragedy she suffered as a teenager to his own professional advantage. In less able hands, this plot crammed full of dramatic climaxes and relationship crises might cross over into melodrama. However, author Ellen Sussman creates such a valid world, peopled with genuine characters, that it simply feels like a privileged peek into Blair and Luke's chaotic, tragic reality. Setting is also masterfully portrayed in this book; Sussman's descriptions of San Francisco's Haight area, mountains, seashore and city are lovingly vivid. I believed in and cared about every word. In fact, I devoured this book in two greedy sittings (and was rather miffed that Real Life forced me to take the one intermission!). I highly recommend ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS for its heartbreakingly vulnerable and flawed characters living in a world where true love, which is never easy, is worth a Herculean struggle. --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
Rating:
Summary: A Moving Debut Novel
Review: Blair Clemens believes the only person she can love is her teenage daughter. Amanda has been the one constant in Blair's life and the only thing she lives for. Only now, death is looming ever closer. As if that weren't bad enough, Blair has just found another reason to live. Luke Bellingham has been given the assignment of finding the "lost souls" of his graduating class for their twenty-fifth reunion. When he comes into contact with Blair, he realizes he's found more than that. The two had barely known one another in high school. She was the hippie-chick with no friends, and he was "Mr. Popularity." All these years later, they are still worlds apart. Blair is a single mother, working as a chef. Luke is a renowned screenwriter, recently separated from his wife. Only this time, when their paths cross, it's as if fate stepped in and was telling them something. Neither one could understand why they were so pulled toward each other, but the fact remained that they were. With seemingly so little time left, Blair needed to spend as much of it as she could with her daughter, but how could she deny the love she may have finally found? On the other hand, how could she be so unfair as to encourage it, knowing she didn't have a lifetime to invest? This mismatched trio has so much to overcome singularly and together. Their struggles are far from simple, and outside influences continue to increase their emotional battles. Maybe fate was playing a cruel joke this time, one that came twenty-five years too late. Ellen Sussman has produced a moving debut novel, stunning in its straightforward attitude. The characters' issues are real, therefore easily empathized with. The protagonist has a strength of will not often seen in works of fiction. This novel does not illicit great bouts of emotion, but rather tells the tale of one woman's courageous and unfair battle with concurrent presentations of an invaluable gift and an agonizing loss.
Rating:
Summary: funny, compassionate, and real
Review: Blair Clemmens, a single mother dying of cancer, is so spunky and wonderfully flawed you could follow her anywhere. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Amanda, is beautifully rendered. Throw in a romantic interest in the form of Luke Bellingham--opposites attract--and you have a story that is funny, compassionate, and real. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: a fine night indeed
Review: Ellen Sussman's stunning debut novel features a strong heroine faced with an awful predicament. Blair Clemens, a single mother and chef in California, is dying. When Luke Bellingham, a throwback to her high-school days who is now a successful Hollywood screenwriter, comes back into her life, what will she do? Is it OK for her to reach for love, knowing it can't possibly have a traditional happy ending? In less capable hands, this could be maudlin material, but not so with Ms. Sussman. Blair is such a strong heroine, and Ms. Sussman's technique of alternating chapters between Blair's and Luke's points of view is so effective and capably done, that what could and should by all rights be tragic instead comes off as a celebration of life and love. Readers will finish this novel looking forward to Ms. Sussman's next.
Rating:
Summary: A Great, Cannot Put-It-Down Read
Review: Forget that this is a debut novel. This is a wonderful book in its own right. Clearly Sussman has a knack not only for plot, but also for characterization and dialogue. This book is at times very funny, very sad, and very much for grown-ups. I picked the book up on a recommendation from a friend, and could not put it down. I wan't to see more from Sussman.
Rating:
Summary: A real tail-wagger!
Review: Generously compassionate and wryly amusing, this is for those who love a good story with lots of human (and other) detail. Set in California's Bay Area and redolent thereof. Filled with characters you'd like to invite home to dinner.
Rating:
Summary: Sad but Wonderful
Review: I cried through so much of this book but I couldn't put it down. 3 lost people found each other at a time in their lives when it was most needed. Blair, who is dying, needed to find true love for the completion of her life. Luke, who has recently been separated from his wife, needed to find unconditional and unselfish love. Amanda, Blair's 16 year old daughter, needed to learn to love someone besides Mom and to deal with the hardships of life. As the book goes on, the 3 of them bonded together in such a way that the bond would never be broken. I loved Sweetpea, the dog. She was the unselfish constant in all 3 lives and, as a pet lover, I know the importance of a pet's unconditional support. She was great! I loved it and I think everyone should read it.
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