Breakfast at Stephanie's

Rating:
Summary: Spoilers ahead
Review: Although the initial set up and premise is good, I can almost see the whip the author was cracking to get her characters to fall into line.
They began to behave in unnatural ways, and the plot line became more implausible and twisted - to the extent of including the royal family!
Stephanie is a single mom of a 2yr old boy, and maintains good relations with the father (stuntman Albert) and her life oozes along at the usual pace of desperation & despair, until Albert shows up on the doorstep wanting to give marriage a chance.

The supporting cast was alternately amusing and irritating. There were, as noted previously here, a lot of inappropriate spam mail jokes, as well as sex for the oldies.

Ultimately her characters were not believable, ergo, unlikeable - Albert keeps coming across as a debonair lovable kind hearted guy and then does completely sneaky stuff...

Felt like the author was trying to hard to get her story to conform to a preplanned plot.

I wasn't able to read through this book - finishing somewhere in the middle and skipping to the last chapter.

Nor did I enjoy the constant praise of Stephanies voice, or Cass quirky s*x addiction, or the whining martha stewart characterizations of Stephanies best friend Lizzie. And the less said the better for the maritial infidelities of Lizzies relationship.

kotori

Rating:
Summary: Fun read!
Review: Although this book didn't make me laugh as much as her other books, it was still funny, sexy and a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Margolis writes another winner!
Review: Breakfast at Stephanie's is a delight from start to finish. If you're looking for a light, predictable jaunt through one woman's struggle with family, love and career- this is the book! It's another Margolis classic, she really knows how to build likeable characters and keep dialogue interesting. You'll love this british chick-lit novel.

Rating:
Summary: Cute & Fun
Review: I like Sue Margolis' books. This is another good one! It's a fun & quick read. Sue Margolis does not disappoint! If you've read her another novels, you'll also enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Breakfast at Stephanie's
Review: It has become quite apparent to me that Sue Margolis likes to stick to the same theme of single/married moms looking for love and excitement in their lackluster lives.

In BREAKFAST AT STEPHANIE'S Margolis follows suit. Stephanie Glassman is a single mom/spirited jazz singer who aspires to make it big one day. But until then, she is spending the Christmas holiday playing piano and signing Christmas carols in a department store.

During one of her shifts, she gets spotted by Frank -- the sexy actor who she had a schoolgirl crush on, and had the pleasure of working with a few years before -- and his perfect fiancé. Discomfited by her current position (and uniform) she sulks home considering the situation to quite possibly be the worst she has ever encountered. But then, her son Jake's nanny breaks her hip, her grandmother calls her for advice about having sex with a pacemaker, and her dad is in a frenzy trying to get to the bottom of why he is being sent junk emails [...].

Can things get crazier? Try Albert, (Jake's father) the playboy wanting to come back into her life so that the three of them can be one happy family. Deep down Stephanie knows she doesn't want this with Albert. She loves him, but not in a romantic sort of way, however the three of them becoming a family is probably best for little Jake. To make the decision even harder, Frank professes his love for Steph, and now she has to choose between the two men.

Through all of this drama, Stephanie gets a big break that could possibly lead her to a huge fortune, except to add onto her already crazy life, she finds out that the deal isn't legit, and she will have to make a decision as to whether or not she will go through with it. It is this situation that helps Stephanie to figure out which man she will choose.

This novel was a tad mediocre to me. Coming from reading SPIN CYLE (also by Margolis) not to long ago, I was expecting this to be laugh out loud hit also. It was just average. Many parts of the story dragged, and the relationship between Stephanie and Frank wasn't expanded on enough for him to even have a point in the book. On the whole, Stephanie and Jake were such lovable characters, that they were the main reasons that I kept on reading. I loved the exchange between the two.

3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Good description, leisurely pace
Review: Stephanie Glassman is a single mom barely squeaking by, looking for her big break as a singer. She is undeniably talented, yet she's spending another Christmas season playing the piano at a department store. She is also, of course, without a boyfriend. Now her son's nanny is going into the hospital and she's about to lose her house. She has the requisite complement of girlfriend pals, a set of nutty parents and a granny who's having more sex than Stephanie.

But abruptly Stephanie's luck turns. A huge agent takes her on as a client and gets her a high-paying (if slightly shady) job recording songs for a big star who can't sing. A hunky actor is romantically pursuing her. And her son's father, a charming Italian stuntman, comes back into her life wanting desperately to be a father, to form a family. It's almost too good to be true. But with good fortune come difficult decisions.

While Stephanie was a thoroughly lovable heroine, this book moved far too slowly for my taste. It felt like the first three quarters of the book was set-up, and only in the last part, when scandals break and conflicts come to a head and the wrong decisions are made, does the story really become a page turner. I was never thoroughly convinced of the love between Stephanie and Frank, the actor. He wasn't well fleshed-out, and I was sort of rooting for the stuntman, who was adorable. The book is worth a read for British chick-lit fans, though, and those who enjoy a leisurely pace and good, descriptive writing.

Rating:
Summary: Such fun!
Review: Sue Margolis should receive modern-day sainthood for providing such
fun books - I read this one on a long flight and time literally flew by! Very believable characters in realistic but very funny situations, lots of talk about fashion and food to make a great read even better. I hope she writes lots more books!

Rating:
Summary: Just alright....
Review: The book seemed just a little too long, especially when you knew what was coming. Sue Margolis' Spin Cycle and Apcalipstick was much better and moved along quicker. Breakfast st Stephanie's had good humor but I just got bored by page 200.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth reading
Review: Usually a book is redeemable if it has one of two positives: a good plot (even if the writing isn't great) or fantastic writing (even if the plot isn't great). This book had neither. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters, and the so-called hilarity consisted of two jokes (an old woman having sex and spam email) that were dragged out the entire way through the novel. Plus, you can predict everything that's going to happen with every character from page 10.

Usually I pass all of my books along to friends when I'm finished, but this one went straight into the trashcan by the pool. I'm a fan of so-called beach reads but in this case, you'd be better off making a sand castle.