An Ocean Apart

Rating:
Summary: A sad, yet sometimes boring novel
Review: "An Ocean Apart" by Robin Pilcher is an extremely interesting novel. Characters are described well, and I felt as if I knew them personally. The settings in this book are portrayed well, also. There are parts of the book where the author will be very detailed with the settings. However, I enjoyed this because it helped me understand exactly what was going on. In contrast, the plot seemed to get off tract sometimes. Even though it was interesting to read, the quickly changing scenes got a little confusing at times. Compared to other books, it had vivid explanations of characters. I did enjoy this novel, but could've done without some of the more boring parts of the book.

Rating:
Summary: A sad, yet sometimes boring novel
Review: "An Ocean Apart" by Robin Pilcher is an extremely interesting novel. Characters are described well, and I felt as if I knew them personally. The settings in this book are portrayed well, also. There are parts of the book where the author will be very detailed with the settings. However, I enjoyed this because it helped me understand exactly what was going on. In contrast, the plot seemed to get off tract sometimes. Even though it was interesting to read, the quickly changing scenes got a little confusing at times. Compared to other books, it had vivid explanations of characters. I did enjoy this novel, but could've done without some of the more boring parts of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Great contemporary novel filled with healing and pathos
Review:

For six months, David Inchelvic has mourned the death of his beloved wife. His grief is so deep he has been capable of neither taking care of his three children nor performing his duties as the marketing director of his family's distillery, Glendurnich Distilleries, Ltd .

Because of sagging sales in America, David is forced to travel to New York for a meeting with representatives of Deakin Distributors. However, during the meeting, David falls apart. Instead of returning home, David accepts a job as a handyman at the Newman Long Island estate. He quickly makes friends with the housekeeper and the Newman's little boy. He later meets and is attracted to the married Jennifer Newman, who reciprocates his feelings. While David begins to heal, a hostile takeover is started by the Kirkpatrick LTD, which used insiders to abet their efforts. When his dad, the chairman of the family company, dies David is forced to give up his recently gained happiness and

return to England to try to stop the bid.

AN OCEAN APART is an incredibly well-written novel, starring a man who is dealing with grief in a moving and realistic manner that will hook reader's attention and empathy from the start. The story line is filled with pathos, wit, and poignancy. The characters are all developed so that readers can understand their motivations. If this is any indication of Robin Pilcher's works, it is a matter of time before the author becomes as famous as his mother.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: As a long time fan of Rosamund Pilcher, I eagerly awaited this new book by her son/heir apparent. Unfortunately An Ocean Apart is not up to snuff. The beginning starts out promising enough, but the story of David's recovery in America soon bogs down into a predictable mush -- trite characters such as the son "Benji" and the black housekeeper show David the way back to his heart. The unfulfilled mother with the erring husband completes the roster of American stereotypes. To say the ending is predictable is, "erm", an understatement.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Surprise
Review: How exciting to find the gift of writing passed from mother to son. Any fan of Rosamunde Pilcher will not be disappointed. The story line is well developed, interesting and exciting. The characters display many emotions that many of us have not experienced, and we are able to get to know them very personally. The entire work is wholesome entertainment. I applaud this first work of Robin's and look forward to more books from this talented author.

Rating:
Summary: Like Mother, like Son
Review: However Robin's book is set at a much-faster pace than his mom's books. It has everything in it, romance, true love, intrigue, despair, hope, humor and happiness. It is a great read ~~ you won't be able to put it down right away! It seems to be a hefty book but it's not. If it starts out slow, don't give up. The best is yet to come.

When I started this book, I had the impression that it was going to be a dark, gloomy book ~~ but that impression changed half way through it. David had just lost his wife Rachel to cancer and unable to cope with anything, he starts working on his family gardens. Sent to America on a marketing job for a few days, David realizes that he couldn't face Scotland without Rachel and applies for a gardening job. Then he becomes involved with a family that he works for.

This novel is a progression of a man's journey through grief only to find hope and love again. It is an emotional book and one that you can't put down easily. You just keep turning the page, promising yourself that this page is going to be it for the night ~~ only to turn the page again. You find yourself rooting for the characters ~~ and by the end of the book, you feel as if the sunshine has come upon you as well as David.

Take it and read it ~~ don't be discouraged by the different writing style ~~ there will never be another Rosamunde Pilcher ~~ but Robin is unique and creative in his own way. His mom should be proud of him.

Rating:
Summary: This is now my FAVORITE book!!!
Review: I absolutely adored this book. It's the best one I've read yet. Some reviewers here didn't think it was very realistic, but I find it exactly the opposite. I work in a mental health office and process client records and see the things that happen to people who have had emotional breakdowns, so some the things that David does does are not all that unbelievable. Granted, I wasn't quite sure how he got a job without a green card, but hey, what's one detail?

I found Mr. Pilcher's style refreshing and totally realistic. He gives the characters little nuances and body language that most writer never think of. As a first-time published author myself, I'm inspired by Mr. Pilcher's added touches and hope to fine tune my own work as well as he has with his.

The characters are so endearing, I was left at the end of the book wondering what happened to them next. David, Jennifer, Benji, Jasmine, everyone seemed so real to me. I loved little Dodie, the poodle who snacks on VW gearshift knobs, and I found myself worrying about her when she wasn't in a scene. :)

The plot was well developed and planned out. Everything seemed to fall into place just right and it ended just as I had hoped it would.

I highly recommend this book. It's a great adventure in the here and now.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: I am a fan of Rosamunde Pilcher's work, so when I saw that her son had written a book, I immedietly read it. It really lives up to the Pilcher name. The book was easy to read, the charecters were believable, and the story was really good. I recommend this book to anyone that likes a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but with some irritating linguistic quirks
Review: I am a fan of Rosamunde Pilcher, so I thought I would give her son a try. This is an enjoyable book, but not up to Rosamunde Pilcher's standards.

The plot of this book is engaging, but its hero is so improbable that the book fails to exercise quite the seductive charm that Ms Pilcher's books exude. While her books are improbable, they draw the reader in to their world, and the reader can positively delight in their very improbability. Robin is not quite at that level. The hero of this book is just too heroic, too much of a superman, to exert the charm that romances like this require. He is brilliant at everything (except barbecuing, a minor flaw) from tennis to giving preteens a powerful new sense of self-worth.

In addition to some deficiencies in characterizations, Robin has some verbal mannerisms that can be quite annoying and distracting. Ms Pilcher has some too (such as using the word "mouthful" when most writers would use the word "sip"), but one can forgive them in the gentle flow of her writing. Robin's are more oppressive, partly because some of them are grammatical errors as well. He has a tendency to allow phrases to dangle. One such appears on the back of the paperback edition: "Dispatched unexpectedly to New York, David's family hopes. . ." I was taught in junior high school to watch subjects: it is David who is sent to New York, not his family. (His family goes there eventually, but this sentence refers to his business trip.) I would have happily blamed this faux pas on an editor, assuming that Robin had not written the blurb on the back, but this is a mistake that recurs in the novel itself. He repeatedly uses the word "minute" to mean "moment," as in "at the minute" to mean "at the moment." He uses the word "flocks" to mean "phlox." Not major problems, and ones that a good editing could easily correct. But they are distracting.

Anyway, this was an enjoyable book. There is room for improvement, but it is an excellent start, and I look forward to more books from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I barely started this book. I was hoping for more of the style of writing of Robin's mom, Rosamunde. I was having a hard time staying with the book. He simply cannot write like she does and I was expecting too much. I was very turned off by the crudeness and swearing, which I have never encountered in her books. I should have expected that as a man, he would write differently, but I was still surprised. I am comparing this to his mom's writing, because that is why I bought the book. She makes every word count, but this was a blend that I just could not stay with.