The Triumph of Katie Byrne

Rating:
Summary: An OK Read
Review: I read The Triumph of Katie Byrne by Barbara Taylor Bradford. In this book, the protagonist, Katie Byrne shares a simple life in the country. She and her two best friends, Carly and Denise, have a dream to become famous actresses in New York. Everyday they would rehearse in a barn, and one day Katie leaves the barn early only to realize that she has forgotten her book bag. When she returns to the barn, neither Carly nor Denise is there so she becomes worried and searches for them. It turns out Denise has been murdered and Carly is in a coma. There is little evidence to point out a clear suspect. Later on Katie moves to London where she befriends a wealthy woman who gives her tickets to a play. After the play Xenia tells Katie that she wants Katie to play a lead role when she brings the play to Broadway. Katie goes back to the United States to confront her old ghosts and re unite with an ex-lover. Carly wakes up from the coma and tells Katie who attacked her and Denise. It was a boy named Hank who had a sexual obsession with Denise. The mystery was solved and after Katie's great performance on Broadway, her true love Chris asks him to marry her.
I thought this novel had a very good plot and I enjoyed reading it. Katie's fear kept her away from her family, her home, her love, and her acting. When she finally overcame her fear and confronted everything, things went well for her, so the title was very appropriate. This novel totally fooled me at the end because I had no idea it could have been a classmate that killed Denise. I am glad that the ending was not predictable.

Rating:
Summary: Not so bad but.........
Review: There was a time when Barbara Taylor Bradford's books were a light piece of fluff and an enjoyable read. But her last few books were tiresome and I didn't really think I would ever read her books again. Then I found her new book, The Triumph of Katie Byrne, at the local library and being in between books, I thought, why not? The good news is it wasn't an altogether bad read, the bad news is it wasn't an altogether good read either.

The Triumph of Katie Bryne is actually two books and if Bradford had published them this way, they might have been right on the money. The first book is concerned with three young women yearning to become actresses who plan on moving to New York City when they graduate from high school. But their plans are shattered when in a single afternoon, one girl is killed and another one is hurt so badly she lapses into a coma. The third woman, Katie Bryne, who was on her way home when the attack takes place, is understandably forever changed. Although an invetsigation takes place the guilty party is never found and the years begin to roll by.

The second part of the book takes place 10 years later where we find Katie studying drama in London. When she is offered the role of Emily Bronte in a play about the Bronte family, a friend suggests, as a means of inspiration, that Katie visit the countryside where the Brontes lived and wrote their classic works. Katie then travels with this friend to the ancestral home of her late husband's family in Yorkshire where Katie spends time walking the moors, visitng the Bronte library and learning more about the Brontes from another guest in this home. And for me this was the more interesting part of the book and the one which I would have enjoyed continuing to read more about.

The last part finds Katie returning home on the advice of a psychic who tells her she must be at home to help solve the mystery. And when Katie opens on Broadway to rave reveews she not only finds love but........and to find out what happens you will have to read the book.

Known for her romance and family saga books, this is Ms. Bradford's first attempt at a murder mystery as she calls it or romantic suspense as I call it. But she included too many bits and pieces of irrelevant information for a book of this size and somehow all of this only detracted from honing in on the main plot of the book. I do wish somehow she could write another book like A Woman of Substance but perhaps that only comes along once in a lifetime. As for whether or not I'll read another Bradford book, I guess only time will tell.

Rating:
Summary: What the @#$%?!!!
Review: To echo many other reader's sentiments--thank goodness I didn't pay for this book. The beginning seemed interesting enough, but Katie really was a cardboard character. So beautiful, so loving, so talented, befriending a couple of no talent hacks and giving them the benefit of her skill...what a wonderful, nonhuman character.

Many things are wrong with this book:
First off the "fey" Katie doesn't talk like any american teenager I know. And you'd think Katie could recite something a bit more original than Hamlet's soliloquy. Maybe it's the only Shakespeare BTB knows?

And a play about the Bronte sisters? Is that for real. Emily Bronte the role of a lifetime? And that whole time in England? All I can say is "huh?!!!"

And poor comatose Carly? Who isn't in a "true" coma, just in a vegetative state. Why was all that thrown in there? Just tell people right off--she didn't wake up and is now a vegetable. By the way Katie--having a vegetative friend shouldn't make you feel any better. At least if they're in a coma they might wake up. Barring a miracle, you are pretty much screwed when they've moved on to veggies.

And we all remember her lame boyfriend and an implausible solution to the mystery. Wow, this book WAS bad. Very bad.