Rating: 
Summary: Bring your tissues along!
Review: I listen to this book on tape. The characters were read by different voices and really gave and extra dose of life to the story. The brief saga Gaffney shared of the four lives of the "Saving Graces" was like a soap opera. I would hurry back to my car to hear what was going to happen next to either Rudy, Emma, Isabell or Lee. I began to feel like they were family members and cried like a baby when Isabell lost her battle with cancer. This book covered the full range of emotions in 4 audio tapes. I laughed, I cried, I cursed the men that scorned them. I highly recommend this book, but remember to keep your tissues close by for the tears of laughter and tears of sadness.
Rating: 
Summary: A True Gem of A Book!
Review: I absolutely loved this book. I have not been so emotionally involved in a story since I read "The Bridges of Madison County" years ago. I am an avid reader and this is the best book I've read in a long time. I was sad when this book was over and felt I had lost four friends. This book will be in my heart always.
Rating: 
Summary: About Life~
Review: The fast easy read really encompasses all that life is about. The changes we go through, life and death and if we are blessed enough we have a few good friends who share with us thier lives as we share ours. I liked the characters in this book and could see myself and my friends in the four different women. I would recommend this book as a great example of what friendships should be like. May we all be so lucky as to be a friend and have a friend as those in this good little book.
Rating:
Summary: Well-balanced blend of friendship
Review: This book will grab you and pull you in for the long haul, and if you want out to avoid the pain any of the Saving Graces feel, well - too bad... you'll find yourself irresistibly drawn to continue reading through your tears to find out what happens next. Gaffney has a nice style of authoring The Saving Graces: Emma (vibrant and sassy - fun, but full of desire for the kind of love it seems she's destined to go without), Rudy (big-hearted and searching for healing from a rough childhood), Isabel (the older of the Saving Graces, very classy, gentle, and wise), and Lee (organized, prepared, lucky in love) each take turns telling this story from their own points of view. There is no "outside narrator." This gives the reader an inside look at each of the Saving Graces' inner thoughts, struggles, hopes, dreams. I loved how the friendships include the trying times real friends have: These four friends are true friends, but they DO argue, disagree, and speak before thinking, hurting the others. Sometimes one of the friends is hoping for something from one of the others that just doesn't happen. Of course there is also plenty of secret-sharing, support, comfort, forgiving and moving on, that makes a well-balanced blend of friendship that was meaningful to me. Made me lonely, though, for friends of my own.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: What a wonderful read! A friend of mine bought me a painting that said "A family is a circle of friends who love you" and that is my interpretation of the Saving Graces. A group of woman from completely different backgrounds, in completely different stages in their lives, come together to create a bond that transends everything else. Through personal tragedies and triumphs, you know who your friends are.
Thank you, Patricia....
Rating: 
Summary: Saving Graces not so Graceful...
Review: Our book club of 5 women read this book and while we appreciated the topic and idea, from beginning to end this book was VERY predictable. The book was too long and too melodramatic. If you enjoy soap operas and romance novels, you may like this piece of work. We were bored and frustrated by the storyline and the lack of character development. You knew what these women were like ONLY because she came out and said it directly, not leaving any room for imagination. There was nothing that stood out about these women. On to greener pages....
Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book!!!!
Review: I have not loved a book this much in a long, long time. I have never read anything by Patricia Gaffney before but I certainly intend to check out her other works. I love the way she writes about how women feel about men. She really gets it right. Everyone has their favorite Grace I am sure - mine was Emma, and the story line concerning her love life was beautifully written. I would LOVE to see this made into a movie, if done well it would be one great "chick-flick".
Rating:
Summary: Book Club Read
Review: My book club read this book, & we all enjoyed it! We had fun seeing which "Grace" matched each of us. A delightful, yet sometimes sad, book about long-time friendship. Very inspiring. I cried & laughed. It made me want to call my best friend & hang out w/ her for hours.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read!
Review: I loved this book. I could identify with each character in some way. I have always longed to have friendships like the characters did. The only thing that disturbs me about this book and Ya-Ya's is the amount of alcohol that the characters consume, but that has nothing to do with the storyline. I will read this book again when I go to the beach.
Rating:
Summary: A story about 4 life long friends
Review: "The Saving Graces" by Patricia Gaffney is written in the first person and narrated by each of the 4 main characters of the book. The reader sees the view points of each woman, and the story unfolds in this manner. The Saving Graces is the name of their "club" of women, all of whom meet once a month to have dinner and discuss whatever topic they had chosen to talk about. Through the years the members come and go, but the 4 main women remain the same: Isabel is the oldest of the group and seems to be the one that keeps the women united. Rudy is married to a very controlling husband and the other three are polite enough never to criticize her choice in marrying him. Lee is the rock of the group, the one that tries to keep things organized and controlled. And last but not least, Emma longs to be a writer and her story starts out with her growing crush on a married man. What I found interesting with this book was the way the reader was able to get different perspectives on each character. I think it was an usual way to write this book. At the same time, I found it rather distracting, because with each new chapter I was seeing things from a different character's eyes, and it took me quite a while to figure out who was who. I dont think this technique of alternating narrators worked well with this book, but other than that, I was interested in the story and what was evolving in the plot. I wanted to know what happened to each of the women. The author made the reader care about each character. I give this book 4 stars because of the content of the book, but if it had been written in a different way, it definitely would have been a 5 star book for me! I definitely recommend this book.
|
