Rating: 
Summary: well written but has a puzzling ending
Review: The friendship between these four women is wonderful but the plot twist involving a brutal act on one of one of them is extremely puzzling. There is nothing pointing to the person who commited the act to lead you to believe they would actually do such a thing. I would reccomend this if you're a die-hard Fielding fan.
Rating: 
Summary: The story, like the women in it, is flabby
Review: There seems to be two main plots that wind their way through the story, the first being the contrived murder whodunit and the second being the much more interesting domestic abuse story about Chris. The peripheral stories about each of the friends and their kids was predictable and really detracted from the storyline of Chris and Tony. It's almost like the sexual harassment, repeated infidelities, and wild children subplots were tacked on to add heft to the book. In all, those things only detracted from the interplay between Chris and Tony (whose character could have used a lot more fleshing out) and the protective circle of friends.
Even the murder plot seemed tacked on, though it purports to be the main thread that ties the entire story together. The author could have spent more time examining the murderer and the reasons behind the killing. The half-baked reasoning that comes out in the final analysis leaves a lot to be desired. If the murderer felt what was claimed to have been felt, a focus on that would have been nice.
The main murder thread can't hold together the rest of the subplots in the story because they really don't have anything in common with each other. There are a lot of things that could have been excised from this book, leaving a much more interesting and powerful novel. The entire character of Susan, for example.
In short, if you're looking to waste a few hours, this book is certainly up to the challenge. I can't lie and say it isn't interesting, but it would be a stretch to say that this book has many qualities to recommend it. Borrow it from a friend.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT STORY
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. The author did a great job with the characters and the plot. A very quick read.
Rating:
Summary: Intrigue and Mystery
Review: This book by Joy Fielding has both of these qualities plus great character development. It centres on the lives of four women who have met and became close friends. But how close are they? Fielding delves into their most private lives and slowly each woman finds her life unraveling in one way or another. I enjoyed the suspense of the book, it kept me wanting to turn the pages. I never really understood the character of Tracey or why she became the person she did but overall I feel it was well written. This is a book about women's friendships and their struggle with themselves and each other. It is a story that covers a vast amount of issues and shows the reader that sometimes everything isn't as it appears to be. Pick up this book, you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Woman's friendship over the years
Review: For many months this book had been on my bookshelf. Finally I picked it up and started it, only to find it was so hard to put down such a good book. Joy Fielding manages to suck you into the story faster then you can expect. The Great Dames of Grand Avenue all share a few things in common, they were all married and all had daughters around the same age. Chris, Barbra, Susan, and Vicki and there daughters Montana, Tracey, Ariel and Kristian. At the start of the book it tells how two woman will die one in a terrible way and the other unknown. This starts you wondering who it could be. Chris lives with Tony who manages to make her feel like the scumb of the earth. He bounces from one job to the other and can't stand Chris's friends and as time goes on Chris begains to wonder if this is the life meant for her. Barbra is the former beauty queen and will always try to mantain that image in her life. Even it causes problems between her and her husband Ron. As time goes on in her life she and her daughter maintain a closeness that they share. Susan after man years decides that she needs to continue her education and goes for it. She manages to get a job at a new magazine and there is where she starts to realize that the life she leads isn't what she wants. She also has to deal with her daughter who is resisting her mother and changing before Susan's eyes. Vicki the up and coming hot-shot lawyer is more interested in working on cases then spending time with her friends and family. She never makes the time needed to spend with her children and husband and starts to make her career more well known. In doing this she hurts her friends and causes more problems in her life. Overall this was a wonderful book that spanned over 23 years of these woman's lives and tells of each had to struggle and how they overcame many things in her life. I look forward to reading more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK!!!!
Review: If you love stories about women relationships then you must read this book. It is about four friends and how they need each other. The events in their lives will shock you. How it ends will even shock you more.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a pageturner!
Review: This is the second Fielding book I have read and both books I read in one night! The writing is so captivating that you don't want to stop. This story embroiders the lives of 4 women (Chris, Barbara, Vicki and Susan) and from the beginning you find out vital information. Chris's husband is abusive in character and the writing is so real and disturbing at times. Her network of buddies appear to be friends for life, but I think their friendship wasn't as thick as it was made out to be. Meaning, a friend who loves you would help you, even if you didn't ask for the help.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing.
Review: I loved the the first chapter of the novel as it sets the reader up for suspense, not letting us know who the narrator is, and blantantly telling us, that amongst this close-knit group of women, 2 will die-one horribly, and one will betray, is not really a friend at all. I was hooked. Then after what we saw Chris go through in the beginning of the book, I just knew it had to get better - her "close knit" group of friends must help her and the she must prevail... I finished this book in two days because I just knew that these friends must pull together and help each other before the final twist of the ending. WRONG. I understand that Chris has to help herself first, but these "friends" just wrapped themselves up in their own lives too busy to help any of their "friends". The ending was a downer because who cares that the Attorney exposes Chris. She is more Attorney than friend.The writer never got across that any of them cared about each other anyway. And it was the daughter who told. There was a fifth person in and takes a lot of suspense/excitment out of the ending.
Rating:
Summary: Make sure you're ready for the reality of an unhappy ending
Review: Grand Avenue offers us an inside look at the lives of four friends as their friendship endures through the years. One of the down sides of Fielding's talent to make her characters so realistic and someone the reader can relate to and care about is that the feelings of sadness, depression, horror, and disgust that the reader feels when something tragic happens to these characters, feels very real and in some cases, very deep. After the death of one of my family members while a different family member has been suffering in intensive care in a hospital, I discovered that this book was not a wise choice for me to read (my timing was wrong - it's not that the book is bad, but it is depressing) because I wanted something lighter, gentler, more encouraging. I wanted to be cheered up by witnessing the joys of friendship that "The Grand Dames" shared through the years. How frustrating it is to "get to know" one of the characters and really like him or her, only to have something really awful happen to them and then on top of it, have another character that you (and the other characters) had trusted carelessly stomp on your heart as well as the others' - esp. at a time when your heart needs a careful touch. This is NOT a gentle book - it's a hard-hitting "nobody ever said life was easy, OR fair" kind of book; the majority of it is not happy and there is no fairy-tale ending (I shouldn't be spoiling anything considering you are told in the beginning of the book about the death of 2 of the characters). Make sure you're in a good mood, or consider having at least one friend or loved one close by to cheer you up if you need it, before you pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!! Couldn't put it down!
Review: GRAND AVENUE by Joy Fielding Grand Avenue is yet another story about women friendships. However, what makes this one different is the tone of the book, and the fast pace at which the plot proceeds. Four women become friends years ago after meeting each other at a playground, each of them having babies somewhat close in age. As the children grow, so do their relationships. They become very close friends, although each of the women is very different. Barbara was an ex-beauty queen who always appeared in front of her friends well dressed and perfectly coifed. Her insecurities were always showing up on the surface, although her demeanor said otherwise. Susan is going to college and by mid book, she is working for a magazine. Chris had a husband that seemed to be a little bit too uptight and controlling, and Vicki was the power-house of an attorney, the one that was in the spotlight all the time, at work and at home. It all sounds like a very generic book, but it isn't. As the reader finds out from the very first pages, something terrible happens to two of the women. It is said flat out that two of them die. And one is brutally murdered. And then the book begins. I dont think I need to say much else about GRAND AVENUE. It's one of the best books in this genre that I've read all year. Fast paced and all the makings of a great motion picture, I highly recommend this book to others who enjoy reading a "chick book" with the added variety of a murder.
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