Bygones

Rating:
Summary: Are You Kidding Me?
Review: A divorced couple with children in need of guidance from both parents eventually get back together and face the issues that come about in today's world. The believable characters could be our next door neighbors and the plot is one we might have heard about from them. Sensitive and heart-warming presentation. Another favorite from my favorite romance author.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three

Rating:
Summary: A Book for Modern Times!
Review: A divorced couple with children in need of guidance from both parents eventually get back together and face the issues that come about in today's world. The believable characters could be our next door neighbors and the plot is one we might have heard about from them. Sensitive and heart-warming presentation. Another favorite from my favorite romance author.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three

Rating:
Summary: Not a dreadful book, but not one I could get into
Review: I normally love LaVyrle Spencer's novels (Morning Glory is an all-time favorite), but this one just didn't do it for me. I could not make myself like or care too much about either Bess or Michael. I can understand how making a broken relationship come back together and work again would be tempting for a novelist, but this one was difficult to enjoy reading about because the characters just seemed to be rather unlikable people. Bess was fussy and almost silly at times and Michael just seemed in many ways to be a flat character for most of the book. In addition, I felt like there was some heavyhanded emotional manipulation (via wedding scenes, the birth of the grandchild, etc..) going one here. Spencer's novels are usually more artful and gentle in getting their message across, so I was rather disappointed by the blatant manipulation in this one. For these reasons, watching the Currans come back together almost made me feel like I was reading a giant Hallmark card rather than a novel of any great depth.

I like Spencer's writing style and her vibrant writing was evident here, but without characters I could enjoy or care about, I just did not like plowing through this book.

Rating:
Summary: Are You Kidding Me?
Review: I totally agree with the reviewer from Portland, Oregon. This book was awful and was completely unfair to Bess.

Rating:
Summary: Let bygones be bygones...
Review: LaVyrle Spencer writes: "It always takes two, honey, but when a man retaliates by having an affair, he's usually the one who gets all the blame." This was a tender, sentimentally written book about a divorced woman, Bess, who takes a long, thoughtful look at her failed marriage and realizes that she's partly to blame for its demise. After all, she was the one who went back to school in an attempt to make a career outside of the home, while neglecting her husband, his needs, and her traditional household chores in the process. In turn, her ex-husband, Michael, newly divorced from his second wife, mopes around his empty condo and comes to the disheartening realization that he doesn't even know how to take care of himself. In a life-affirming, men-can-change-even-if-raised-in-the-40s way, Michael learns how to make eggs and does his very own laundry after 43 years, winning Bess' love and forgiveness without ever having to say he's sorry for cheating on her.

To add to this heart-warming tableau, we have the uneducated, holier-than-thou daughter, Lisa, who, with the great wisdom and maturity of her 21 years, attempts to manipulate her divorced parents into reconciliation. As driven by the nostalgia that haunts every character in this book, Lisa wants her family to be whole again for her unborn child and upcoming wedding.

The only somewhat sympathetic character in this book is Randy, Bess and Michael's drug using son, who is a "loser" that works at a nuthouse (which is so much better than Lisa's typist/waitress job), and blames his father (gasp) for having an affair and breaking up their happy home. But he too succumbs to the general theme of blandness and nostalgia when falling for the saintly MaryAnne Padgett, a throwback to a "simpler time."

I highly recommend this book ...

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: This is the first book I read by Spencer. It got me hooked on her books and now I am still trying to collect all of them. This is a great book from page 1.. you won't regret reading this book!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't read it fast enough
Review: This is the fourth Lavyrle Spencer book I have read. Before this I was a true Danelle Steele reader. Since finding these books I am hooked. The difference in each story keeps you guessing on the out come.

One of the most moving things in this book is when the separated family has to come together for a wedding and then have to pose for a photo as a family. Lavyrle Spencer shares with us there thoughts. The next four sentences are heart wrenching.

The last two chapters of this book kept me reading so fast I had to re read it after I finished the book. I just wanted to know how they would end up.

Great Book, I'm looking for the next one.