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Summary: "Quite Moving,"
Review: "Dance with Me," by gifted writer, Luanne Rice, is a haunting tale of star-crossed lovers and a small town. The characters are wonderful and the plot had me swiftly turning the pages. I enjoy this writer and think that anyone who enjoys getting lost in a good book will also enjoy it as much as I did!... (Highly Recommended!)
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Summary: A return to a hometown, and a search...
Review: Author Luanne Rice is known for her writings of life and relationships. In Dance With Me, main character Jane Porter returns to her hometown of Twin Rivers, Rhode Island, to be with her sister and ill mother. Jane has been away from RI for years, escaping her past, living in New York City's Greenwich Village and founding a successful bakery business. Her motives to return aren't just for her mother and sister, but also to search out a teenager named Chloe, whom she gave up to adoption at the time of the baby's birth. Not a day has gone by that she hasn't thought of her daughter. She meets Chloe under secret circumstances, hiding the fact that she is her birth mother. Jane unexpectedly finds love with Chloe's uncle... but when she reveals that she is Chloe's birth mother, the news is not welcomed but vehemently rejected. After assisting her sister in settling mother in a much needed constant-care nursing home, Jane reluctantly returns to New York to reopen her bakery to escape the pain of Chloe's and the uncle's rejection. Does forgiveness come out of love lost, to be regained? Rice's book has a realistic premise, but soft on character development and depth of the plot lost in the repetitiveness of 'will she love me?', 'will she accept me?' "will he understand?' If you are a reader who enjoys a no nonsense, light romantic read, then Dance With Me is for you. (Recommended Reading: The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo)
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Summary: Loved this one!
Review: Beautiful story, reminded me of "Home Fires," also by Luanne Rice. The setting for the story was wonderful and the characters were easy to get to know and love. This book could become a great movie!
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Summary: Touching Story,
Review: Dance with Me by Luanne Rice held my attention throughout the whole story. I enjoyed this writer's characters and the dialogue kept me flipping the pages. Nice Job!
Rating:
Summary: Touching Story,
Review: Dance with Me by Luanne Rice held my attention throughout the whole story. I enjoyed this writer's characters and the dialogue kept me flipping the pages. Nice Job!
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Summary: Another success
Review: I always look forward to a Luanne Rice book. Inside the covers, they each hold something special, magical- a tale of love, family and redemption. And they always keep me coming back for more!Dance with me is about two sisters, Sylvie and Jane and their ailing mother. Even though they are both about 30 years old, in so many ways they've never grown up. But now is the time to face the past and start anew. For Sylvie it's dealing with a mother who has Alzheimers, who she's built her whole life around- but now it's time to start a life of her own. For Jane, it's about forgiving her mother for encouraging her to give up a baby she had when she was 20 and finding a way to make up for lost time. And then we get to know the family of the little girl Jane put up for adoption, Chloe, and her family- who have their own secrets and problems. Again, Luanne Rice takes topics we've read about a million times before and some how still manages to hold our interest. And she never gives us a cheesy ending, anything forced or fake. It's as real as real life can get. I'd recommend this book for anyone who enjoys romance or family stories. The story keeps you interested and the characters endear themselves to you. Also- read any of her other books, they're all wonderful!
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Summary: Involving from the Start
Review: I don't know what it is about Luanne Rice, but she writes in a way that grabs at the back of your mind and won't let go until the last page is finished and you know the outcome. I liked this story because of the way each character linked with the next. The intimate way their parts are described and their lives explained has you feeling for them each step of the way. You have to keep reading to see how the layers of each person is peeled away until finally they realize the commonality they have.
Romantic love is present in this story but it is also a story about parental love. Young love, old love, mistaken love, abused love and new love. Luanne Rice is a big believer in love and that is what keeps me returning to her stories and looking forward to each new book.
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Summary: Loved this one!
Review: I don't usually run out and buy a hardcover book immediately, but Luanne Rice books make me go and do just that. This book was well written and very touching. The whole premise of the story is Jane comes home to help her sister take care of her mother, but we find out she has come home for a very different reason and that is to find her daughter. As with any Luanne Rice book, Rice never puts all her cards on the table at once. She very slowly reveals her intentions for the charactors development chapter by chapter. The magical web she weaves makes us long to read more to understand and to develop the character in our mind. I spent a night reading this, I just couldn't put it down. Luanne Rice is in fine form. Anyone who enjoys books with a coastal flair will always enjoy Rice's books.
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Summary: LOVE ROCKS
Review: I felt like I wasn't a virgin after I read this book!
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Summary: You want schmaltzy, you got it
Review: Two families, the Porter's and the Chadwick's, of Twin Rivers, RI, are linked forever by a heartbreaking event some fifteen years prior that has remained largely hidden but has had its effects. Both of the families have suffered through varying crises, but that incident from years before takes on new and dramatic significance in this most sentimental of books.
When Jane Porter finally decided to take a sabbatical from her bakery in NYC and return to her childhood home to deal with her traumatic loss from years before, little did she realize that her path of discovery would be so intertwined with Dylan Chadwick, who has been in mourning for many years after having lost his wife and daughter in a shootout on the streets of NYC. But it is Dylan's niece Chloe, a sensitive fifteen year old, who loves nature, is a bit of an animal rights activist, and has a magnetism that defies her years, who becomes the healing force for both Jane and Dylan.
Rice's books are not without their troubles. They are full of weepy, anguished moments. Not only do her characters over emote, but also the author can't let the dialog stand on its own. She is constantly compelled to add her own emotion-based spin on what has just occurred. The reader can easily feel that his or her heart is being gratuitously tugged at. An unexpected incident involving the pure Chloe with a bad boy is a guaranteed tearjerker.
Yet, despite all of the emotion - grief and anxiety being most common - her good-natured characters seem to find happiness at the end. Flawed characters, facing predictable failure, are not part of her repertoire. Former US marshall Dylan aggressively confronting some teen-age trespassers with a loaded shotgun is not a sign, in the author's depiction, of perhaps some deeper problems.
Rice is obviously appealing to a certain audience. For them, her predilection for making precocious children - wise beyond their years - the centerpiece of her stories is a surefire device. Her books are basically a pleasant, though maudlin read. Reading a couple of those a year might not be such a bad idea.
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