Rating: 
Summary: handy-man turned mom
Review: This is the story of Lydia Blessing, her resident handy-man, Skip, and the baby he finds at his front door one morning. The story is about how Skip falls in love with the mystery baby and how the two of them soften the old routine-loving Mrs. Blessing. The basic story is good, but a great deal of the book explores the pasts of both Lydia and Skip in a way that is very disrupting to the telling of the main story. Sometimes the flasback is only a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages, but the transitions between past and present are not smooth and sometimes random. I was halfway through the book before I figured out who all these people from the past were and how they relate to the characters. Still, it's a pretty good book, and even though it doesn't have the greatest ending, it's still enjoyable enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre - at best
Review: I was very disappointed in this book and in an author that I considered promising. It would seem that Anna Quinlen is on the Steele/Grisham program that encourages commercial success if a predictable template is followed. It will be interesting to see if Quindlen conforms to predictable plots and quick reads to satisfy an audience that savors mediocrity. I kept thinking there would be something redeeming if I just kept reading - I did and there wasn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Quindlen Has Written Better
Review: Regretfully, I have to agree with those reviewers who found this book boring. I too just couldn't get "into" it. I have read all of Ms. Quindlen's previous books and enjoyed them. I think the problem is in the way she bounces back and forth between the past and the present, sometimes within a single sentence. I think she was attempting to convey to the reader the way a person's mind really works - we may be listening to someone talk, but our mind is far away either in the past or the future. But in print this method simply renders the reader more confused that the narrator is supposed to be. Her descriptions were excellent. She uses a lot of detail and the reader really can "see" Blessings and all the assorted characters. I think this is what Quindlen is best at. The storyline, however, was a bit weak and implausable. Overall, I gave it a three because I felt that her writing is good enough to rescue the reader from the confusing time skips and rather uninspiring plot.
Rating: 
Summary: This book was boring
Review: I was very excited to buy this book because it had been on a bestseller list. I honestly had to force myself to finish it. It was very boring. It jumped from past to present in nearly every paragraph and I could feel the writer writing the story, in otherwords, she did not accomplish making the reader lose themselves in the story, as if it were real. I felt like I was tripping through her first time book and that someone just wanted to be able to say they wrote a book. At the end, to summarize it, it was a fairly cute story, but you really had to force yourself to continue reading it until about page 179. I wouldn't recommend the book, unless you are someone who likes to say the read the book. Not any great work of literature, for sure.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I bought this book with enthusiasm soon after it was published, afer having listened to Anna Quindlen discuss it on television. After the first couple of chapters, I would read a few pages, put it down, and couldn't bring myself to pick it back up. It was sheer boredom, but I forced myself to get through it. I did like Skip and baby Faith, but too much else was going on to maintain interest. The writing was okay, but the flashbacks became very distracting and the ending was disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful, can't put it down, I want more book
Review: I read an excerpt from this book in Reader's Digest adn then noticed a lot of good reviews on here and the book kept getting recommended to me. So thought to myself I might as well and read it. I am glad I did. I have never read anything by this author before but I enjoyed her wrting, her style and her characters.
This story is about mainly an old woman, a young man and a baby that changes there lives.
Skip gets a job for ms. Blessings to be her handyman and after a month he finds a cardbox in the garage. Inside is a newborn baby. He decides to keep her even though he is scared to death. After a while Ms. Blessings discovers her. As the story goes on from there secerts are revealed from all around past and present. The baby brings out the best in everybody that comes near her in Skip's life.
I couldn't put this book down and I would recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: Oh, please!!!
Review: ...The idea of the book in and of itself is plausible and poses some interesting qualities; it's the way the characters are written, shallow and unbelievable, and the typical format of a child changing everyone around him/her to such a degree as to be miraculous ...
Rating:
Summary: A Good Story
Review: Anna Quindlen has always been an excellent writer. I have enjoyed all of her novels, for the most part, although I have found that they all, save Blessings, contain a certain amount of annoying self-righteousness. Blessings, perhaps because of its subject matter is refreshingly free of that element. It is a pleasant, easy read--the story of a newborn baby left on the steps of the wealthiest home in a small town and how that baby changed the lives of the people she touched. The characters, while hiding a few surprises, behave reasonably. The dialogue is well-written. It's just a nice read. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: kazeyz
Review: I was throughly suprised by the power of this book for me.
I was taken in ...on the first pages, and although the writers style was different , I truly enjoyed it. It said to me that perhaps there is a chance for all of us , given the right choices, and time , and of course fate...
That the order of life is necessary...at times a comfort. It also speaks to an older generation where the same order of life held to much power, and secrets, and little time for the individuals thoughts and or choices.
Rating:
Summary: Heart Warming Story
Review: A newborn baby is abandoned at an estate called Blessings and is discovered by the young caretaker. The story that follows is a heart warming tale with wonderfully rich characters. There are many tender and sweet moments that made my eyes fill. Descriptions of an old, closed-off woman gradually opening up to the marvels of a small infant. A young man discovering he is an important part of someone's life. And the simple discoveries a baby makes every day. Quindlen has an interesting writing style. She doesn't describe her characters in full at the beginning, but reveals them layer by layer as the story evolves, like making a new friend in real life. The two main characters, Charles "Skip" Cuddy and Mrs. Lydia Blessing are absolute jewels and well worth getting to know. If you need a lift, this is the perfect book to read. And if you know a friend who needs to feel good about something, give them this book to read. It is a story for sharing.
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