Rating: 
Summary: Good Grief: Plot, Characters, Dialogue - All Great!
Review: Lolly Winston has achieved something found in few first novels - natural flow, fascinating plot, characters you love and dialogue that's real. Though the story centers around the first year of a young woman's widowhood, there's a tremendous amount to laugh at. It accurately depicts the courage it takes to get back up, dust yourself off and build a new life - honoring what went before without drowning in it. Winston is a marvelous storyteller and I recommend this book highly. Warning: don't start reading this late in the day. I did, and lost 4 hours of sleep!
Rating:
Summary: An amazing first novel
Review: I picked up this book one night and finished the next--it was such a compelling story. I can't wait to read what Winston comes up with next. The characters in this book become real to the reader, and their situations are entirely believable. This is an honest and insightful look at how people deal with grief. I
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Summary: Perfectly baked!
Review: Good Grief belongs to a sub-sub-genre of women's fiction. Likeable woman faces crisis. Discovers herself through transforming domestic, warm-and-fuzzy talents into a commercial enterprise. And, if single, she gets a romantic interest as a bonus.As it happens, I rather like this sub-sub genre. And Lolly Winston gives us a heroine who's likeable and intelligent. She adds an edge by giving us a blow-by-blow account of a year in the life of a grieving widow. In this case, the grief seems especially painful because Sophie, the heroine, is young, and because she lost her own mother at a very young age. Sophie's grief seems like a blanket someone has thrown over her life, stifling her energy. Like most employers, Sophie's company allots a limited time for grieving. After that, Sophie is supposed to be a cheerful PR person, extolling the virtues of some deeply flawed medical product. Just as she hits bottom in her career, an old friend invites Sophie to move from California's Silicon Valley to Ashland, Oregon. And Sophie's new life begins. Sophie finds a charming rental cottage and a job in a restaurant, where she gets downgraded from waitress to salad prep and then to pastry, where she finds her true niche. She begins to study baking in earnest and, along the way, finds a new love and a new career. Of course, it's not quite that easy. Sophie becomes a Big Sister (the reasons are a little value and I'm surprised she was accepted, given her grief-stricken state). Her Little Sister, Crystal, isn't the cuddly eight-year-old she expected, but a tough-talking teen with a ditzy mom and potentially serious problems. Some of Sophie's descents into grief can be hard to read, despite a comedic element. Sophie's opening party pushes the envelope when anything that can go wrong does go wrong. In the end Sophie emerges as a strong heroine, although some elements of the happy ending owe more to luck than to Sophie's efforts. As a career coach, I wish these authors wouldn't make starting a business seem so effortless. But I have to say that most career transformations happen just this way: putting one foot in front of the other, remaining open to new options, and being willing to follow your passion to see where it leads.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Suggested
Review: I thought this was a wonderful book. It was fresh and written in a way that you become attached to the character. This story was very true to life and I can't wait to hear more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Strikingly Original
Review: When Good Grief first arrived on my desk, I told myself I would just read the first chapter to test the waters. A couple of hours later, I had devoured the book like a fat man at a buffet restaurant. Needless to say, the water was warm and oh did it feel good. Good Grief is the hilarious new book about surviving death. No, that wasn't a typo. The story is filled with both poignant and sardonic comments from Sophie Stanton (the main character) and how she copes with the loss of her husband Ethan to cancer. Her spouse, who made his living as a software programmer, has gone on to a better place after merely three years of marriage. Sophie, a PR manager, now finds herself a reluctant widow. At only 36 years old, she is the youngest person in group counseling for the grief-stricken. Sophie goes through all of the textbook stages of grief, including denial, anger, depression, and acceptance. During the first stage, she questions the meaning of life and the senselessness of her job, trying to promote a patch used to increase male testosterone. "...I feel like an imposter in a cubicle-like the artificial crabmeat of public relations managers. Then there's the fact that I have to say "scrotum" to people all the time. Is this really the color of my parachute?" During the depression phase, she finds solace in staying home and watching TV shows like Cops. "...now I see the attraction of the show. It makes your own life seem pretty together." Truer words have never been written. Though her deceased hubby's mother tries to help out the best she can, including helping with sending his belongings to Goodwill and spreading her son's ashes in the ocean. When she shows up to work in her robe and bunny slippers, her human resources manager gives her a much needed sabbatical. It is after this moment when Sophie decides to leave the Silicon Valley city she and her husband had shared and packs up to move to Ashland, Oregon to be with her friend Ruth and her four-year old daughter to start all over again. In Oregon, Sophie trades sunny California days for cloud-filled ones. She rents out an unused bed and breakfast. Then she donates a portion of her time to Big Brother/Big Sisters where she winds up getting matched with a self-mutilating, foul-mouthed teenager named Crystal instead of a young, sweetheart to play Candyland with (like she'd hoped for). Afterwards, the road to recovery begins-a road that includes a new career and a new love interest. Good Grief is a strikingly original work filled with charm, truth, and a heaping helping of sharp wit. First time author Lolly Winston, who resides in California, succeeds at the difficult task of taking a delicate subject and having fun with it without being offensive. The novel reminded me a lot of Dave Eggers "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" in style and content. I highly recommend this cleverly written book and hope the movie is in the works. Good Grief is an outstanding piece of work.
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Summary: Couldn't stop reading!
Review: I loved this book, even though the Alzheimer part is a little outdated/incorrect. I loved the characters! I gave it to my 13-year-old son who is enjoying it now. I think it's a book for many age groups. I was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending, although, it leaves room for a sequel (which I would definitely read). Very entertaining and a real "feel good" book!
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Summary: Good Reading!
Review: I loved this book. I became so involved with the characters that I felt like I had lost touch with friends when the book was finished. To me that is the sign of a good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than I expected
Review: I loved this book. It has more depth and heart than your average "chick-lit" book. I'd call it Chick-Lit for the Grown-Up Reader. I was surprised at how emotionally involved with the main character I became. Reading about the pain of missing her husband made me cry, and her fears of beginning another relationship felt very real as well. I would highly recommend this book to readers of smart women's fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but a few flaws
Review: I agree with the reader who put this into the 'likable woman faces crisis category.' I enjoyed the book, but the author lost me on a couple of details. I have a mother with Alzheimer's and would never keep reminding her that her son had died (and thankfully, this is not an issue for us). For a person with AD, being reminded of a loss makes them have to go through the initial shock of grief, over and over. What is generally suggested is the 'therapeutic fib' (from our AD training class). Sophie would have been better advised to say, "Ethan is out of town" or something along those lines.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh and cry
Review: Good Grief is one of those rare novels that sincerely makes you both laugh and cry, sometimes within the space of a few pages. Sophie Stanton married late (at 33), and had just begun to become accustomed to married terms--my husband, us, and we--when her husband died of Hodgkin's disease before their fourth anniversary. The story follows Sophie through the stages of grief, including a heartbreakingly funny scene where Sophie shows up at a job she hates wearing her robe, slippers, and unwashed hair. Deciding that a change in geography will help her, Sophie moves from California to Oregon, where her best friend lives. In Oregon, Sophie starts piecing together a new life for herself by renting a house, volunteering to be a Big Sister, babysitting for her friend, and finding a new career as a baker. Sophie also meets, dates, breaks up, and reunites with a man while her former mother-in-law slips into Alzheimer's disease. What is unique about Good Grief is not the story line--as other reviewer have mentioned, this novel is probably borderline "chick lit." Good Grief is very well written, empathetic, and deals with issues head on instead of relying on contrived solutions to come to a happy ending. I would strongly recommend this book!
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