Prodigal Daughter

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Heart Tugging
Review: Ginna Gray has once again does what she does best. Tugged at my heart. I loved Maggie's courage and steadfastness in the face of rejection from her father. Ms Gray always satisfies my need for a good story and since I don't want to give away the story I will just say that once again she has delivered. The diner scene was wonderful. It added a touch of humor to a very poignant story. I loved The Prodigal Daughter!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Heart Tugging
Review: Ginna Gray has once again does what she does best. Tugged at my heart. I loved Maggie's courage and steadfastness in the face of rejection from her father. Ms Gray always satisfies my need for a good story and since I don't want to give away the story I will just say that once again she has delivered. The diner scene was wonderful. It added a touch of humor to a very poignant story. I loved The Prodigal Daughter!!

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: I found The Prodigal Daughter to be a somewhat disappointing read. I gave it two stars for being able to hold my attention all the way to the end of the book, but I didn't find it enjoyable enough to keep for re-reading.

My main complaint is with the heroine, Maggie; the author has lavished not only fortune, accomplishment, and beauty upon her but sympathy as well. Maggie is a strikingly beautiful, fabulously successful model (who can eat whatever she wants) who graduated with a 4.0 from Harvard, but was an ugly child and still longs for acceptance from her father and wants only the best for her family, even the ones that blatantly ignore her good intentions and great virtues. Certainly the heroine of a book should be something special, but Maggie rolls right on over the top into annoyingly perfect uberheroinedom. Her complaining about her circumstances comes across as whining.

Maggie makes for a somewhat weak heroine, but the book could survive it, were it not for other flaws: the hero, Dan, is so unremarkable that I barely remember him. The only characters who really captured my sympathy and liking were Maggie's little sister Jo Beth, a realistically sulky and yet still sympathetic teenager, and her Aunt Nan, a minor character. The rest of the characters are frustrating: Maggie's father is too harsh and self-superior, her mother too weak and unconfrontational, her sister Laurel likewise weak and spineless. Martin is the sort of fellow who in a movie would be announced by patently Evil-Guy theme music; *he* has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

The plot, too, is weak, depending mostly on two implausibilities: that Maggie is somehow the only person who can set things right with the family's failing business, and that Maggie's father is willing to believe the worst of her no matter what the evidence suggests, just because of--well, I won't spoil the plot, but it is something of a stretch.

To tell the truth, it seemed to me that Ginna Gray was trying to be Nora Roberts with this book. Maggie comes across as a caricature of some of Roberts's characters. Unfortunately, Ms. Gray isn't as accomplished a writer, and doesn't pull it off nearly as well.

Rating:
Summary: She's done it again!
Review: I've always been a big fan of Ginna Gray and she didn't disappoint with The Prodigal Daughter. I found it hard to put down and quite enjoyable. Ms. Gray captured Maggie's spirit and passed it right along to her readers. Another great one by Ginna Gray that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Don't miss this one!

Rating:
Summary: She's done it again!
Review: I've always been a big fan of Ginna Gray and she didn't disappoint with The Prodigal Daughter. I found it hard to put down and quite enjoyable. Ms. Gray captured Maggie's spirit and passed it right along to her readers. Another great one by Ginna Gray that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Don't miss this one!

Rating:
Summary: excellent relationship drama
Review: Maggie Malone returns home to Ruby Falls, Texas after earning a degree in business administration at Harvard. However, she becomes upset when she learns her younger sister Laurel is going to marry nasty Martin Howe. After Maggie fails to break them up, Martin confronts her and that turns into a sexual assault. Her father Jacob intercedes but blames the incident on his wild child daughter. Jacob tosses Maggie out of his house.

Seven years later, Maggie's mother calls her while she is on a modeling shoot in Greece to inform her that her father is dying from cancer. Maggie returns to Ruby Falls where she receives an icy greeting from her father, her brother-in-law, and her youngest sister JoBeth. However, Maggie stays when her mother asks her to save the family business that is in financial trouble. She meets Dan Garrett, general manager of the cannery and orchards. They fall in love, but he thinks she is a nasty person because she never came home during the past two years when her father's ailment first surfaced.

This novel is an enjoyable relationship novel that centers on how everyone reacts to the return of THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER. The story line is crisp, filled with varying levels and types of tension, and never eases up on the throttle until the novel is finished. Jacob's sexist acceptance that Maggie was totally wrong and Martin was the wronged party seems stretched, as this intelligent adult would minimally blame both. Still, Ginna Gray provides a taut contemporary romance that will thrill those readers who relish a deep family drama.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Fast, can't put it down read
Review: The is my first Gina Gray but it won't be my last! I had to put the book down and have a good hard cry. Anyone with a father will relate to the lead woman. I liked this book so much I wrote to ABC, NBC and CBS and suggested they do a made for TV movie on this book. Hope one of them listens!

Rating:
Summary: A Heartwarming Tale of Forgiveness and Love
Review: The Prodigal Daughter is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Ginna Gray always writes about characters the reader can identify with, and Maggie Malone is no exception. Outrageous and brazen on the outside, but yearning for acceptance and love on the inside, the character of Maggie is expertly developed by Mrs. Gray's considerable talent. The Prodigal Daughter is chock-full of page-turning scenes that held my attention until the very last paragraph. I couldn't put this book down, and finished it in just one day. It is a must-read for anyone who enjoys tales of forgiveness, acceptance, and the redeeming power of love.

Rating:
Summary: A Heartwarming Tale of Forgiveness and Love
Review: The Prodigal Daughter is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Ginna Gray always writes about characters the reader can identify with, and Maggie Malone is no exception. Outrageous and brazen on the outside, but yearning for acceptance and love on the inside, the character of Maggie is expertly developed by Mrs. Gray's considerable talent. The Prodigal Daughter is chock-full of page-turning scenes that held my attention until the very last paragraph. I couldn't put this book down, and finished it in just one day. It is a must-read for anyone who enjoys tales of forgiveness, acceptance, and the redeeming power of love.

Rating:
Summary: The Prodigal Daughter
Review: This book is the best from Ginna Gray. It's about a super model returning to her hometown after being kicked out by her father when she was seventeen. When she returns, she shows everyone how much she has matured and how wrong they were about her. Along the return, she finds love, respect, and a family. It is a heartfelt story which will make you laugh, wonder, and cry.