Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but not a, must re-read
Review: This book was okay, fairly predictable. It was a pleasant few hours, but is isn't a book I set aside to read again. I love serious fiction, like Cold Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter. I really dislike formulatic romance, and I found this book to be only a notch above pulp romance.
Rating: 
Summary: No mystery about this one!
Review: This is the fourth book I've read by Lorna Landvik, and I must say that it is my favorite so far! I absolutely loved the storyline. I've never read so much in one day in my entire life! I highly recommend this book with two very enthusiastic thumbs up.Welcome to the Great Mysterious tells the story of Tony-winning Broadway actress, Geneva Jordan, and her escape from her life. After getting dumped by her co-star and boyfriend, Trevor, Geneva quits her run as Mona Lisa in the Broadway play, Mona, in order to nurse her wounds (and a severe case of menopause!) in peace. However, Geneva's sister, Ann, has other ideas for her vacation -- after 13 years of being a full-time mother to Rich, Ann is finally going to take a month-long vacation with her husband, Riley, and needs Geneva to baby-sit. Which wouldn't be such a bad idea except for the fact that Geneva doesn't know how to baby-sit.... Rich, who has Down's Syndrome, proves to be a beautiful and heartwarming character. I loved the interaction between him and Geneva. Rich has a heart of gold and is funny and sweet and a pleasure to read about. He really stole the whole show for me. Throughout the month, Geneva learns a lot about herself and what is really important, and I loved every second of it! The best so far... I can't wait for more.
Rating:
Summary: No mystery about this one!
Review: This is the fourth book I've read by Lorna Landvik, and I must say that it is my favorite so far! I absolutely loved the storyline. I've never read so much in one day in my entire life! I highly recommend this book with two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Welcome to the Great Mysterious tells the story of Tony-winning Broadway actress, Geneva Jordan, and her escape from her life. After getting dumped by her co-star and boyfriend, Trevor, Geneva quits her run as Mona Lisa in the Broadway play, Mona, in order to nurse her wounds (and a severe case of menopause!) in peace. However, Geneva's sister, Ann, has other ideas for her vacation -- after 13 years of being a full-time mother to Rich, Ann is finally going to take a month-long vacation with her husband, Riley, and needs Geneva to baby-sit. Which wouldn't be such a bad idea except for the fact that Geneva doesn't know how to baby-sit.... Rich, who has Down's Syndrome, proves to be a beautiful and heartwarming character. I loved the interaction between him and Geneva. Rich has a heart of gold and is funny and sweet and a pleasure to read about. He really stole the whole show for me. Throughout the month, Geneva learns a lot about herself and what is really important, and I loved every second of it! The best so far... I can't wait for more.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit different Lorna Landvik
Review: This isn't "Patty Jane's House of Curl" or "Tall Pine Polka" but it is an ejoyable read. It was the books premise which made me want to read "The Great Mysterious." A very popular, very busy diva on Broadway is reaching middle age, approaching menopause, and recently having been dumped by her boyfriend who has decided he needs a younger woman on his arm, is asked by her sister to babysit for her nephew who has Down Syndrome in a small town in Minnesota. She decides this might be just the thing for her at a time when she feels the need to "get away" and to slow down. Along the way, she finds out what is really important in life with the help of an old notebook she finds......The Great Mysterious. Somewhat predictable, a bit of a romance novel feel to it, but well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Very uplifting
Review: This was a sweet story of family love and close knit friendships. Lorna Landvik writes a story many of us can relate too. At first I wasn't sure how she was going to tie all the characters together, but she slowly develops the story never giving away the ending. I read it in two days and wished the epilogue was longer....
Rating: 
Summary: good, but a little shallow like the main character
Review: This was my first Lorna Landvik book and I was mildly entertained. But, the only character that was fully developed was the main character. Maybe ignoring the other characters was the author's way of reinforcing the main character's self absorbsion and arrogance.
Rating:
Summary: Hey, Pal!
Review: What a great big wonderful story! Lorna Landvik is a delight as an author; she has fine-tuned her writing skills wonderfully in this fourth outing. Landvik creates memorable characters in each of her books, and "Mysterious" is no different. I had a Swedish grandmother, and I was enamored with the memories Grandma Hjordis. I laughed 'til I wept when Geneva told her twin in Minnesota that she'd called her from New York to tell her a new Ole and Lena joke, more for the memories than the sarcasm. Landvik understands the fundamental emotions and raw energy that it takes to raise mentally and physically handicapped children, and she describes Rich and Conrad, friends through and through, beautifully, albeit a bit unrealistically. She was right on target with Rich's greeting to strangers, and with her explanations of his need for organization and predictability. I enjoyed Rich, and felt sad not to know him. While the romantic episodes are predictable, and the reader is left without answers to several minor questions, the events surrounding Geneva's epiphany into humanity are powerful and memorable. I enjoyed the reading romp, and look forward to the next.
Rating:
Summary: A PREDICTABLE ROMANCE
Review: With Patty Jane's House Of Curl (19 ) and The Tall Pine Polka (1999) Lorna Landvik served laughter, reader satisfaction, and casts of original characters (mostly endearing). With Welcome To The Great Mysterious we find a stereotypical protagonist, a Broadway actress in her descendency (she is 48!) plus a rather formulaic soap opera plot. And, to ensure a good cry, there is a child with Down syndrome and another with cerebral palsy. This is not to say that Ms. Landvik has abandoned her trademark humor, it is there but more predictable than surprising. The Broadway star is Geneva Jordan who has been divorced by Jean-Paul, an irresistible Frenchman who wanted a green card rather than a wife, and dumped by British matinee idol Trevor, "a modern version of Errol flynn and Laurence Olivier." A tad shallow and an admitted diva, she sees "nothing wrong with a little self-aggrandizement." Geneva explains, "There are worse things - a mass murderer, a bigot, a telephone solicitor. And why shouldn't one take privileged treatment as a right?" She is plagued by loneliness, a black fear that she has named "Petunia" in the hope of blunting its powers. And, Geneva is also a fraternal twin. So, despite a mountain of misgivings, when her sister, Anne, calls with a plaintive SOS Geneva responds. Albeit reluctantly. She heads for Deep Lake, Minnesota, to babysit Rich, her 13-year-old nephew with Down syndrome, while Anne and her husband take their first vacation in as many years. Once in the middle of Minnesota she meets Ann's best friend, Barb Torgerson, mother of Conrad who has cerebral palsy, and possessor of a frizzy permanent that Geneva's hairdresser "would never have allowed to leave his shop." And, romance readers, rejoice! She also meets recently divorced James, evidently Deep Lake's one Renaissance man - he plays the piano, coaches the girl's hockey team, and has thrown over a top of the corporate ladder job for a mailman's route on which he often ponders spiritual matters. Now, the moment James and Geneva appear on the same page, readers know what's going to happen - it just takes a while plus a few jigs and jogs before it does occur. The Great Mysterious of the title is a makeshift book with cereal box covers that Ann and Geneva made as young girls. They entered weighty questions into it, such as the meaning of true love, and the meaning of life, then left the book open so adult family members of could write in their responses. Upon rediscovering the book in the nether world of Ann's closet, Geneva faces these questions again as she reassesses her values and goals. The Great Mysterious is a pleasant read. It's not Ms. Landvik at her peak, but it definitely is Landvik and for her many fans that may well be enough.
Rating:
Summary: A PREDICTABLE ROMANCE
Review: With Patty Jane's House Of Curl (19 ) and The Tall Pine Polka (1999) Lorna Landvik served laughter, reader satisfaction, and casts of original characters (mostly endearing). With Welcome To The Great Mysterious we find a stereotypical protagonist, a Broadway actress in her descendency (she is 48!) plus a rather formulaic soap opera plot. And, to ensure a good cry, there is a child with Down syndrome and another with cerebral palsy. This is not to say that Ms. Landvik has abandoned her trademark humor, it is there but more predictable than surprising. The Broadway star is Geneva Jordan who has been divorced by Jean-Paul, an irresistible Frenchman who wanted a green card rather than a wife, and dumped by British matinee idol Trevor, "a modern version of Errol flynn and Laurence Olivier." A tad shallow and an admitted diva, she sees "nothing wrong with a little self-aggrandizement." Geneva explains, "There are worse things - a mass murderer, a bigot, a telephone solicitor. And why shouldn't one take privileged treatment as a right?" She is plagued by loneliness, a black fear that she has named "Petunia" in the hope of blunting its powers. And, Geneva is also a fraternal twin. So, despite a mountain of misgivings, when her sister, Anne, calls with a plaintive SOS Geneva responds. Albeit reluctantly. She heads for Deep Lake, Minnesota, to babysit Rich, her 13-year-old nephew with Down syndrome, while Anne and her husband take their first vacation in as many years. Once in the middle of Minnesota she meets Ann's best friend, Barb Torgerson, mother of Conrad who has cerebral palsy, and possessor of a frizzy permanent that Geneva's hairdresser "would never have allowed to leave his shop." And, romance readers, rejoice! She also meets recently divorced James, evidently Deep Lake's one Renaissance man - he plays the piano, coaches the girl's hockey team, and has thrown over a top of the corporate ladder job for a mailman's route on which he often ponders spiritual matters. Now, the moment James and Geneva appear on the same page, readers know what's going to happen - it just takes a while plus a few jigs and jogs before it does occur. The Great Mysterious of the title is a makeshift book with cereal box covers that Ann and Geneva made as young girls. They entered weighty questions into it, such as the meaning of true love, and the meaning of life, then left the book open so adult family members of could write in their responses. Upon rediscovering the book in the nether world of Ann's closet, Geneva faces these questions again as she reassesses her values and goals. The Great Mysterious is a pleasant read. It's not Ms. Landvik at her peak, but it definitely is Landvik and for her many fans that may well be enough.
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