Rating: 
Summary: Rediscovering family love
Review: Having seen the paperback on the rack and reading a brief review from a guild publication, I decided to try Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky, a first-time author read. How could I have missed a Delinsky book - this was wonderful! In such a tender love story, it was so refreshing to have a male as the dominant character and read and feel from his perspective. The evolution of the story as told and seen from Jack McGill, his daughters, Rachel's friends and family was compelling. Sometimes you don't want a cliched happy ending, but I was rooting for this family all the way. The reawakening love for his ex-wife and his daughters and, in turn, their acceptance of him made for many teary scenes. It was refreshing to see compassion, tenderness, friendship, confusion, determination, hostility, impatience, and love woven so intrically together without explicit sex. Delinsky's description of the Big Sur area was so vivid. I've never been there, but feel like I have now. A sequel would be welcome, but in the meantime I'll be reading other Delinsky works.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read.. The sanctity of family in 350 pages!
Review: What a wonderful book! Coast Road captures the intricacy and beauty of family in only the way Barbara Delinsky can. Through the course of the book, we see the lives of the main characters grow around the memories of a life six years past, confront the issues of a tragic event, and hope for a future of togetherness. The reader has no choice but to fall in love with thirteen year old Hope and her adorable trademarks, relate to the adolescent Samantha, and struggle with Jack as he realizes the mistakes of his past and the difficulty of picking up the pieces. Further, the book group, consisting of a hodge-podge of characters, adds more color to this already vibrant book. Lastly, Delinsky manages to make Rachel Keats the center of the book, even though she is speechless for the majority of its pages. One can't help but shed tears as her eyes open to a changed life she is stranger to. This book far exceeds the simple rubbing of lotion by an estranged husband onto the skin of her comatose ex-wife. On the contrary, this book has emotion seeping from its pages and quickly pulls the reader into the roller coaster ride Delinsky provides. This is a must read for all people, men and women!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite so far! I loved it!
Review: Since recently having discovered this author I have read Together alone, An accidental woman, the woman next door and Lake news. I found all of them to be enjoyable light reading this book was no exception however I found Coast Road not only uplifting but it also raises some meaningful questions about relationships. This book is about a couple who got a divorce when their relationship got "stuck" and neither of them were able to see past their own struggles to be able to communicate with each other. And now years later Jack is brought back in his ex-wife life while she's in a coma and thru her friends and the life she has built for herself he rediscovers not only his love for her but also reconnects with his daughters and ultimately finds himself in the process.This book would make an amazing movie, it's a feel good story with substance !
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent reading fare.
Review: I've read Barbara Delinsky's books for years from her category romances to her more recent mainstream fiction and she continues to deliver very intelligent, contemporary reading. The thing I like best of about this novel is that we get to watch a man learn about a woman. Even though Jack has been married to Rachel for several years, is father to her two children and has maintained a civil yet distant relationship with her for 6 years of divorce, he really doesn't know this woman at all. He has to learn about her hopes, her dreams, her lifestyle, and simply about her through her friends and her children. The people themselves tell as much about Rachel as their words and it is a nicely executed book that can pull off the layers of a person slowly and allow such discovery. Also in the process, Jack discovers himself as well. And he realizes, that although he might not have known Rachel as well as he thought, she really knew him. There is a small subplot about a rebellious teenage daughter that adds a layer of reality and texture to the story. However, the semi-mystical moments that involve the other daughter and the next door neighbor seem to be just filler and add unecessary drama. Overall a good read, which I recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable read, but not one of her best
Review: COAST ROAD by Barbara Delinsky A man looks back on his marriage and where life may soon lead him, in COAST ROAD. Barbara Delinsky paints a picture of life along the Monterey coast of California, where a middle-aged woman lays in a coma while her children, friends, and her ex-husband wait for her to awaken. Jack McGill is a highly successful architect, designing resorts and casinos and other high-end projects. His ex-wife Rachel is an artist, who moved to Monterey to seek the life she missed when she was married and living with Jack in San Francisco. It is six years since their divorce, and now Jack is back to take care of Rachel, who was in a horrible car accident and now is in a coma. Their two daughters Samantha and Hope are devastated, and are having a hard time adjusting to having dad back in their lives again. Rachel's friends know about Jack, or at least they know Rachel's version of Jack, and they look at him with caution and suspicion. But as Jack does all he can to support his daughters, and waits by his ex-wife's bedside, he looks back on all that has happened since Rachel left him, and through her friends, he slowly finds out why she had left him. COAST ROAD is a story of memories and contemplation, as Jack finds out what is truly most important to him. He juggles his priorities and makes new ones. But most of all, he finds the family that he thought he had lost six years ago. I have to admit COAST ROAD is not my favorite Barbara Delinsky book. It is much different from the other books I've read by her so far. While LAKE NEWS, ACCIDENTAL WOMAN and FLIRTING WITH PETE either have a mystery involved or have a lot of suspense, COAST ROAD has neither. The main theme in COAST ROAD revolves around the marriage of Rachel and Jack, and what went wrong. It's a book about making things right, and getting closure. I didn't feel it was a fast read and it wasn't a "can't put the book down" type of book. However, as a fan of Barbara Delinsky and a fan of women's literature, COAST ROAD is not a bad book at all, and I did enjoy it. As someone else here on Amazon put it, this is a love story, and I'm always up for reading one. With that said, I recommend reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: This is a terrific read, but not Ms. Delinsky's best.
Review: The story is wonderful, and the way it's presented is both unique and interesting. Ms. Delinsky has a writing style and a way of exploring contemporary women's issues that few other authors can match. If you haven't read this book, by all means do so. It will probably make you smile and definitely make you cry. Having said that, I found Jack to be a much more sympathetic character than Rachel. Yes, he has flaws. And, yes, he carries much of the weight of responsibility for the loss of their marriage. Much...but not all. I didn't feel that Rachel ever owned up to her own contribution to their divorce. After all, she walked out on Jack. Without explanation. She took his daughters and went someplace where she could be more creative. But never - not once - did she tell him why she was leaving or what he was doing wrong. She expected him to read her mind in several situations - to anticipate needs she never expressed - and when he couldn't, she punished him. Jack had to discover Rachel's feelings secondhand and I think that was an injustice. That was the weakest link in this book. The relationships between Jack and his daughters and Jack and Rachel's friends are developed beautifully (and, incidentally, comprise much of the book). Likewise, Jack's path of discovery and growth is believable and heartwrenching. Jack's character alone makes this book worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been memorable
Review: Coast Road had the potential to be a memorable, moving story, but its potential was defeated for me by what I perceive as authorial laziness and by errors. By around page 100, I found myself distracted from the story by apprehension that Jack would push another hand through his hair. The author could have varied that character trait, but she seemed too enamored with it. So, rather than having a trait that enhanced the "fictive dream" the author created an annoyance that kept me from fully engaging with the characters and the story. Then, when we learn on page 157 that Jack had traded Rachel's old VW bug because it had a bad radiator I gave up. VW bugs (Beetle, for those who don't remember the originals) had ***air-cooled*** engines, which do not use radiators. Also, unless she had signed the title over to him, he could not just trade in her car without her permission. Combine all the above with Jack's aptitude for asking medically astute questions (he's supposed to be an architect, not a doctor) and, well, I just couldn't finish even though the story itself was more or less compelling. I think the author was in too much of a hurry to get to book 66 (the jacket claims that she'd written 65 novels) to clean up the errors in a final draft. I'm sure this book will be loved by fans of soap operas and supermarket fiction, but I doubt that discerning readers will make it to the end. I give it two stars for the idea and for the good use of detail when it's accurate.
Rating:
Summary: A different type of book
Review: You don't often read a book like this--at least with this story line. I kept expecting Jack to fall on his face and just chuck it all, but the author does a great job of making him into a human so that the reader can see what is going on behind the mask. I thought this book was pretty true to life--relationship wise. Sometimes, spouses expect too much of the other without actual communication, and when that breaks down, they need to figure out how to get it back. I loved how Jack was able to re-discover his kids and his talent. A great book from a great author. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A different type of book
Review: Yo don't often read a book like this--at least with this story line. I kept expecting Jack to fall on his face and just chuck it all, but the author does a great job of making him into a human so that the reader can see what is going on behind the mask. I thought this book was pretty true to life--relationship wise. Sometimes, spouses expect too much of the other without actual communication, and when that breaks down, they need to figure out how to get it back. I loved how Jack was able to re-discover his kids and his talent. A great book from a great author. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Makes the ordinary into the extraordinary
Review: I'm new to Delinsky's work - but well on my way to becoming a fan. I loved this book. The characters are human and normal. The characters met and romanced in such a normal average way (in college - very much like me and many of my friends), and yet how the author made it seem so wonderful and extraordinary. I've known so many Jacks - he's just such a typical character. And he makes so many classic mistakes. Not checking up on your daughter's whereabouts on prom night because you're afraid to rock the boat - this is totally believable. Particularly since he had been out of the loop for 6 years. Would Jack really turn around so completely in only 2 weeks? Maybe, maybe not, but it seemed pretty believable to me. And engaging. One would not expect this to be a page turner from the description, and yet it is.
| 
