<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Review by Suzanne Barr of the The Cape Coral Daily Breeze
Review: Best selling author Fern Michaels takes readers on a memorable journey in her current novel, "Yesterday." When four unlikely children are thrown together to spend the summer at the Parker Plantation in Summerville, South Carolina, little do they know how the bonds of this childhood friendship will bring them together as adults. Under the watchful eye of housekeeper Mama Pearl, the youngsters; Brie, Callie, Sela and the lone male Bode Jessup, spend their summer days surrounded with love from Mama Pearl. Each child has a past, yet when together at Parker Manor, the past is forgotten. Twenty-five years later as adults they have scattered apart, leading lives of their own. Callie's upcoming marriage to Wynfield Archer, son of a very wealthy family, Bode, Brie and Sela all return to Parker Manor for the wedding. However, fate has a say in this. On the night before Callie's wedding, tragedy strikes. Callie and Wynfield are involved in an accident, courtesy of Wynfield's one too many drinks. Fearful for his future, Wynfield makes a life altering decision that will change the lives of the four friends who've always loved one another, no matter what. The strength of their friendship will be tested beyond their wildest imaginings. The question is: Are the bonds of friendship enough, can the memories of yesterday hold their friendship together, or is the truth they've denied themselves too painful to bear? As always, Fern Michaels creates characters that often remind one to pause and ask themselves if they're real or just that, a character. In "Yesterday," the cast of characters, especially Mama Pearl are delightful! Bode, Callie, Brie and Sela could be your best friend. Yesterday is one of her greatest tales of love, friendship and redemption. Fern reminds us how powerful the truth really is, and that honesty is the best policy. I haven't forgotten Mama Pearl and her kindness. Read "Yesterday," I'm sure you'll agree. Get the tissues out for this one,cause it's a heartbreaker!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Fern Michaels Yesterday is one you have to read. This book was wonderful and one you can't put down. From beginning to end Fern kept me in suspense. I thought I knew what was happening to be surprised with what did happen. Love being surprised. Definitely recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I have just started reading Fern Michaels. I like the "spirits" and the animals she uses in her books. I also like that the characters in her books are talking instead of just reading narrative. As in the title of my review, I found this book enjoyable. That friends are there for each other for years is something rarely found these days. Some things were not explained, at least that I recall. What exactly was the "frizzled chicken" used for. Mama Pearl was a wonderful character and always wanted the best for her children. Then again I did find it hard to believe that two children could pay for all the upkeep on the plantation with just a newspaper route. Or that the authorities apparently never looked closely at the car to see if the seatbelts were working. If Brie was a crack FBI agent. She should have been able to figure that one out. Who cares that Bode was black or white? But this was the South! I would love to hear more about Hatch and Sela, and Bode and Brie in possibly another book. I did not like Callie's character at all, she was a "taker" as Sela said when they came to that conclusion themselves. The book was enjoyable, with a few minor flaws that isn't going to keep me from reading it again. I will put this in my library as a keeper instead of making it a give away.
Rating: 
Summary: good start, bad finish
Review: I listened to the audio tapes of this book and really enjoyed the first few chapters. Then when the car accident finally happened I was bored for two tapes, then, started to dislike everyone. Callie seemed nice enough at first and then after the accident, everyone hated her, then the inconsistencies began. Bode became black??? But not black really b/c he had white parents and was raised black even though everyone in town knew he was white and Callie was black???? Most mixed marriages I've seen and know the child doesn't come out fair w/ blond hair?? So, how was Callie fair and Bode dark-skinned, etc. Then Brie and Sela hated each other at first and always argued together, then move in together and become 'sisters'. Bode describes Sela as a wonderful, peaceful person....then later says she's a piss-ant...Hello? I began to dislike all these people and thought Callie was the way she was only b/c of Mama Pearl. She was a totally different person at the end then at the beginning, and so I wished them all luck and threw the tapes in the trash. Read Celebration if you like this author, but avoid this one.
Rating:
Summary: good start, bad finish
Review: This book reads as if it were written by a 16 year old just out of a summer writing workshop. The characters have the depth and substance of paper dolls. They aren't even consistant enough to qualify as stereotypes and the plot is just recycled drama we've all read over and over again. I got headaches from rolling my eyes at the dialogue- it's that bad. No one talks like these people. Every converstation is nothing more than the writer's attempt to give the reader more information. Most books use this technique but it fails miserably here because there is no subtlety and there is no plot to keep it flowing. I've been satisfied with books by Fern Michaels before when I needed a book that was fun to read and didn't reqire any effort on my part. Getting through this muck was like a part-time job.
Rating: 
Summary: YESTERDAY IS BEST FORGOTTEN...
Review: This book starts out promisingly enough. An affluent man in South Carolina has a daughter named Callie, ostensibly an only child. He adopts Bode Jessup, so Callie can have a brother. He also brings two young girls from disadvantaged and dysfunctional families, Brie and Sela, to be Callie's playmates, but they end up spending most of their time in the Parker household. As Callie's mother is a sick woman and her father is a busy man, the roost is ruled by Mamma Pearl, a larger than life African American woman. She becomes the center of the universe for these three children, who look to her as a mother figure and love her dearly. Mamma Pearl also loves and cherishes these children, sacrificing her life to their well being. When they are all young adults, however, intrigue and turmoil bubble under the surface, as their true feelings for each other begin to emerge on the eve of Callie's wedding. The catalyst for a great emotional catharsis is the tragic accident that leaves Callie in a coma on her wedding day. As events unfold, shocking family secrets are revealed, ripping the blinders from their eyes, as all was not what it seemed. The book, which started off promisingly enough, begins to head south, as a series of revelations, increasingly implausible, are divulged. Moreover, the personalities of the characters seem to change at the drop of a dime, depending upon the circumstances. This tends to render them two dimensional, as there is no real character development. This deficiency in the writing serves to further highlight the implausibility of the storyline. Moreover, some of the surprises in store for the reader are positively ridiculous. The secrets about Bode and Callie are especially ludicrous, making the book almost laughable. The only thing that seems to save this audio book is the reading by Laural Lerlington, who does an excellent job with the material with which she had to work. The fact that the book is rife with dialogue, rather than narrative, works to the advantage of the book when read aloud, and Ms. Lerlington does a masterful job of infusing the characters with as much personality as possible. While the reading rates four stars, the content of the book rates two, resulting in an overall rating of three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Passable, but long
Review: This book wasn't too bad. I did find the characters to be somewhat wishy-washy and you never really knew what to expect (not really in a good way). I enjoyed reading about the time the characters spent as children most of all. It made you understand more the bitterness and resentment that they all seemed to have for one another. However, Callie's manipulation of all the rest seemed to be unfounded and a little hard to believe. This was the first Fern Michaels book I read (I have read another before writing this review) and this one was kind of too long to really keep me hooked the whole time. It could have had about 100 pages less and been easier to understand and follow. Not the best book I ever read, but, overall, it was an amusing way to pass the time.
Rating:
Summary: Four people all looking for something different...
Review: This was a tale different than most I have read. Four people are all looking for something different, and all go to the same place to find it. There lives were greatly entertwined as children, but they have drifted apart over the years. They are all back together again, and old emotions are tangled with new ones. A very entertaining mix.
Ms. Michaels has always been one of my favorite writers. I did not find this novel a dissapointment in the least, and hope to see more with this level of quality writing in the near future. This is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: yesterday, today, tomorrow ~ who cares?
Review: well this book took a while to finish. i tried to enjoy it, but i could not. the story is about three women, their "mama pearl" and a man who spent quite a deal of time together in their youth. mama pearl "protected and loved everyone". okay, so we get more than 3/4 of the way through this book (because everybody was busy remembering stuff) and then it is decided that one of the characters is selfish etc. we get everything wrapped up, neat and tidy at the end. what kind of story was this? some kind of feel good, you get what you deserve story. only it was so far off base, there was nothing realistic about it and as an escape clause for a novel it fell way way short. okay enuf for now. i want my money back (but the spine was broken, so it will go to the used book store for a teenager who needs imagination to read).
<< 1 >>
|
