Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: I can't believe it took me this long to finally read this book. The writing is first rate, the characters are nicely developed, and the story weaves together brilliantly. This author makes you care about the characters in the story. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful War-Time Romance
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book. It is a timeless love story that makes me cry every time I read it. Great writing, wonderful characters, a really engrossing read.
Rating: 
Summary: wordy and oddly unkind
Review: Not a bad story -- but there are many extremely long sections that can be skimmed over and which have no bearing on the plot or characters. Also, Pilcher is ungenerous with her characters: we are meant to fervently admire the editor in chief of a fashion magazine, and exult in her "Kingdom" of editing articles about "Your best accessory is you" -- and despise the plump, less intelligent housewife in a stifling marriage. I was unable to admire one nor despise the other, and kept waiting for Pilcher's portraits to shift and become more complex -- but they remained one-dimensional, and readers are simply TOLD what to think about them. To me, there was nothing in this book to inspire the passion that other people have for it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully poignant!
Review: Oddly I was always hesitant to read this novel. Pilcher's coming of age saga Coming Home is one of those "desert isle" books that I could read againa and again. I wasn't sure anything else could be as good. This is, just very different.This is a reflective story of an elderly English lady looking back upon her life, her choices, circumstances in and out of her control, and those around her. Each chapter focuses on a differnt character and their relationship to Penelope, the protagonist. I assumer Penelope would be a typicla little old lady, but she has such depth and opinions of her own. The book wanders around significant events in her life including the turbulent WWII years. I was incredibly moved by the end of this book. Without spoiling anything- the scene where her daughter finds the red drss in her closet brought me to tears. This book celebrates love and life. I adored it and know it will be one I reread!
Rating: 
Summary: Another perfect book to read on the beach ~~
Review: Penelope Keeling is a character that you just cannot help but love ~~ hosting dinner parties for friends and family, wearing shabby clothes simply because clothes aren't that important to her and talking about wine, literature and art ~~ sounds perfect to me! I am not fond of Nancy and Noel ~~ two of her children who seems to expect too much from their mother, while Olivia is my favorite child ~~ she's so much like her mother except for being career-driven. She doesn't put many demands on her mother ~~ she's the daughter every mother wishes she has! Pilcher writes convincingly of the human relationships between Penelope and her children as well as the other characters. She writes of ordinary lives transformed by love. Her descriptions of Cornwall are so vivid that you can almost see the breakers on the beach as well as smelling the salt in the air. It must be artists' paradise! What captures my fancy is how Penelope is such a warm-hearted person who uses her inheritance to pay for a trip home. Too many people expect their parents to leave them money after they have gone, whereas Penelope spends her inheritance prudently and wisely. She has never followed the rules and she does it with so much grace and love ~~ it makes one want to be more like her instead of like two of her greedy children. This book covers more emotions and depths of the human lives and these characters become as real as your family. It's a great summer read (or even a winter read ~~ with a pot of hot tea nearby and delicious scones!) and the characters will linger long after the last page is turned.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Seek "Shell Seekers"
Review: There is good and bad in everyone, but Pilcher's characters are boringly one-dimentional. Anyone who does not follow the heroine like a slathering lapdog, agreeing with her every whim (some quite questionable, like adultery), is presented as stupid, ugly, fat, and bordering on evil. (The elder daughter, a grown woman, who was overweight (which apparently to Pilcher also means unintelligent), was presented as childish and not even able to add in her head, her children ugly and undesirable company - and this by grandma!) A GOOD mother loves all her children, and does not easily see (or admit) to their shortcomings. Especially she does not discuss these faults in length with her "favorite" child, whose own qualities of self-service and snobbery are presented quite differently: (If) "...the nicer side of her COMPLEX PERSONALITY would shrivel and die and she would be left with nothing but her INBORN INTELLIGENCE and her RELENTLESS, DRIVING AMBITION." I found myself disliking both women. I'm certain that wasn't the intent.
Rating:
Summary: WONDEFUL escape!
Review: This book had depth, love, history, and decent writing. It's a great vacation book.
Rating:
Summary: A must Read
Review: This has to be one of my all-time favorites. I was introduced to this book several years ago and loved it. As with any yearly tradition, I pull my worn copy from my bookshelf once a year and curl up with this book. Ms. Pilcher spins a marvelous tale that weaves you in and around the characters in this book and no matter how many times I read it, I'm always left wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorite books
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in ages and I love re-reading it. Pilcher's stories create worlds the reader wants to settle into and stay in. Penelope (I see her as Kate Hepburn in "Summertime") has a painting that she especially loves. Her father did it years ago, of her playing on the beach, and titled it "The Shell Seekers." Now her deceased father's paintings have become valuable. When the story begins, Penelope returns home from a hospital stay. She has released herself, feeling that she has sufficiently recovered from her heart attack. She feels an increased sensitivity to life and relationships and she's driven by a need to accomplish some final things with family and friends. There's a great deal to be desired in her relationship with two of her children and with their relationship with each other. They want her to sell the painting and their motives are selfish. As the story progresses, Penelope feels the need to return to her childhood home. She invites each child to go with her and each refuses for one reason or another. So she takes two cherished young friends on a pilgrimage into her past that changes their destinies. And hers. Pilcher creates women characters who are strong and independent and at the same time feminine. Penelope doesn't need a man to help her work through her problems but when one comes along, she's gracious and kind. This book is about values and relationships, hope and dreams, rights and wrongs. It's a delightful story that I hated to end. I wanted it to go on and on and on.
Rating:
Summary: Can't say enough good things about this book!
Review: This is one of the greatest books I have ever read! I actually read this book quite some time ago, and it was the first book by R. Pilcher that I read. Since then, I have purchased every book she has written. Her vivid and rich descriptions of the people and places she writes about make me want to hop a plane and go visit. Penelope Keeling is a character that is real and believable, from her memories of her childhood to her thoughts of her grown children and their future. This story brings a realistic view of two of Penelope's grown children whose only thoughts are of the money that could come from the sale of Penelope's father's painting. And of her third child (also grown) who only wants her mother's happiness. Rosamunde Pilcher has a real winner with this story.
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