Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After having read and loved "The Saving Graces," I thought I would enjoy this novel as well. Unfortunately, I found the plot to be thin and excruciatingly slow and none of the characters to be likeable. What a disappointment after the sparkling characters in "The Saving Graces." I won't give up on Patricia Gaffney yet, but I hope her next book is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Circle of Three a page turner
Review: After reading Patricia Gaffney's "The Saving Graces", I could hardly wait for Circle of Three to come out. It was written in the same style as "The Saving Graces" and was definitely a page turner. Gaffney does a wonderful job of telling the story from three different perspectives while pulling it all together. I would definitely recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very Worthwhile Read
Review: Ah - a new Patricia Gaffney book -- reading rarely gets better than a work from this talented author. The follow-up to her much-acclaimed THE SAVING GRACES, CIRCLE OF THREE is really more of a romance than THE SAVING GRACES in that the main character, a recent widow, ends up seeing her old high school sweetheart and things really heat up. I think the main theme of the story is intended to be the relationships between three generations of women in a family, but this middle character is so much stronger than the other two that her story really is at the forefront of the book making the other two (her mother and daughter) more like subplots. The story is told in first person from the POV of each of the three main characters and I love the way Gaffney seems so easily able to alternate between the three and give them their own unique voice. I can only give it 4 stars because it really isn't as powerful as THE SAVING GRACES, but nevertheless a very worthwhile read and worth paying the hardcover price.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful relationship drama
Review: Carrie instigates an argument while her husband is driving home from an outing when he suddenly keels over and dies from a heart attack. Carrie's guilt is so intense, she slides into a deep depression for the next four months, unable to eat or even dress until her mother Dana forces her into obtaining a job. Dana hopes that Carrie's new boss will prove to be a suitable spouse once her daughter comes out of mourning. Carrie cares about no male except perhaps her first love Jessie, a person she fled when she decided to abandon her small hometown. Carrie's teenage daughter Ruth knows nothing about the shared past her mother and Jessie had. Instead she likes him, treating him like a friendly older brother and occasionally like a father. Dana never approved the "socially inferior" Jessie, but feels that when he thinks the time is right he will make his move. However, when Ruth catches Jessie and Carrie in a compromising position, she feels betrayed causing a crisis that forces the three generation of women to confront each other and themselves. Patricia Gaffney follows up her last bestseller THE SAVING GRACES with another powerful drama that will appeal to her fans as well as that of Delinsky and Siddons. The poignant story line deals with problems on different levels as the three females bring differing perspectives to the table. This makes for an engaging tale that charms the audience as everyday people try to do their best to attain a happy life for themselves while hoping to bring contentment to their loved ones. CIRCLE OF THREE is family drama that is impossible to put down until the final page is read. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A new favorite author!!!
Review: From the very first page, Patricia Gaffney had me caught. I absolutely loved this book and her prior novel,"The Saving Graces." Gaffney has a style of writing that makes you feel like you are really a part of the characters lives. As if they are sitting in your livingroom conversing. It'll make you laugh and cry, and wake up early in the morning to catch a few more pages before the day gets started. A real gem. Can't wait for more!!!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Having read The Saving Graces which I just loved, I couldn't wait to read another Gaffney novel. I like this author's style of storytelling. Both books exhibited a similarity in this area and I enjoyed that, though at times in Circle of Three I wasn't totally sure who was speaking for several paragraphs. There was a relatinship of friends in the first book and a relationship of woman family members in Circle of Three, both appealing to women readers. The concept of honoring a dying man's wishes was a treat to follow to completion. However, I found this book to be very depressing until almost the concluding chapters. Death, grief, domineering interference, depression, rebeliousness, recklessness etc. were the underlying themes and how Carrie, Ruth, and Dana exhibited them and worked through them. I am sure many many families experience these states every day, but I wanted something uplifting to read. When her next novel comes out I won't be rushing to buy it until I read more reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Having read The Saving Graces which I just loved, I couldn't wait to read another Gaffney novel. I like this author's style of storytelling. Both books exhibited a similarity in this area and I enjoyed that, though at times in Circle of Three I wasn't totally sure who was speaking for several paragraphs. There was a relatinship of friends in the first book and a relationship of woman family members in Circle of Three, both appealing to women readers. The concept of honoring a dying man's wishes was a treat to follow to completion. However, I found this book to be very depressing until almost the concluding chapters. Death, grief, domineering interference, depression, rebeliousness, recklessness etc. were the underlying themes and how Carrie, Ruth, and Dana exhibited them and worked through them. I am sure many many families experience these states every day, but I wanted something uplifting to read. When her next novel comes out I won't be rushing to buy it until I read more reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Circle of Three Plus You = Great Reading
Review: I bought this book because I had read "Saving Graces" and wanted to see if Gaffney's power with the written word would be consistent. I also find myself tired of seeing so many books that are solely based on romance. Is that all women care about? Not this one. Gaffney has an exceptional talent for inhabiting the mind of her characters and speaking distinctively as she writes each character. All three protagonists in this novel are strong, complex, likeable and dislikeable. All three are real. All three are dealing with a variety of players, different challenges in different stages of life. It was effortless to feel compassion, anger, laugh and cry with each of them. While the main point of the book is to be a study of the relationship of three generations of women in the same family, I saw it as an additionally strong study in personal evolution through challenging situations and everyday situations. I saw the responses as realistically human just as each character was realistically human. Some examples of Gaffney's word weavings which I found especially enjoyable: page 66: "Brian's job becoming, at least it had accomplished what my mother, guilt over Ruth, and 50 milligrams of Zoloft hadn't been able to: my return to the real world. Half of me might be in the ether, zoned out and inattentive, mired in the old grief and guilt that a death in the family brings - naturally - but the other half was coping. It was a start." page 101: "Sex weas different -- he could and did make love in the face-to-face position -- but for everyday, standing-up, fully clothed affection he literally couldn't face me." Ruth, the youngest woman, made this observation that stirred me: "My mouth was making too much water, I couldn't swallow fast enough." (This was right before she became ill). There is much, much richness... I suggest you read it for yourself.....
Rating:
Summary: Stick to Romance Novels---- This was no "Saving Graces"
Review: I enjoyed Saving Graces so much, that I couldn't wait to read Circle of Three. I was so disappointed. It was plain boring. I probably will not read another book by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Circle of Three
Review: I expected more. Loved "The Three Graces". This book (for me) went nowhere. It could have, it just didn't. No feeling. The characters never evolved. They were the same in the beginning as they were in the end - weak. Nothing learned, nothing exposed, nothing gained. It took me a while to get thru it (a good book I can read in a day or two), this took a few weeks. I kept expecting something... and then ..in the end..nothing. Maybe it was too much like real life. I wanted something from this book...to like/dislike the characters, get caught up in their emotions/life, find a moral, something...but...nothing. Very disapointing. A 15 year old steals a car, drives miles away, gets a "gay" tattoo (doesn't realize it at the time - right! I have a tattoo, you know what you're getting unless you're really drunk/high/stupid, and a fifteen year old knows the what all the "symbols" mean...better then anyone. She works in a new age store and has a goth sortof boyfriend...please! She's more afraid of a tattoo (that she wants) then some freak who tries to pick her up, whom she later describes as a pedophile, that instead of walking away, she carries on a conversation with? Sorry I just don't buy it. Before this she's consistently mean and disrespectful to everyone and nobody does a thing, no one seems to care, or they do, but you never know. It doesn't ever go that deep...too bad, it could have. Felt I was left high and dry...hate that!
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