Family Blessings

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Awful!
Review: Don't waste your time on this obnoxious little book. Unpleasant characters, no plot - truly a waste of time. I was shocked that someone would publish this garbage.

Rating:
Summary: Keeping Secrets
Review: Fern Michaels has written a wonderful holiday type story and one you will not be able to put down.
Now that the trips are married the doctors have a huge secret and maybe one they should not of kept as it could cost them problems and possibly there marriages and Cisco decides to do something she said she would never do.
When things all get settled and straightened out Fern Michaels bring warmth,love and faith at a time when we need it most.
A must read and one I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing sequel
Review: I enjoyed No Place Like Home and was glad to see Family Blessings, the sequel come out. Was I disappointed! It's a short book, but the story was so tedious and repetitive that it seemed twice as long.

Cisco, the founder of Cisco Candies, loses her home and everything in it to a tornado at Halloween along with other people in the valley. Apparently the valley is habited by very talented people, because everyone had a new home built and furnished by Thanksgiving. But Cisco isn't happy with her new home, because it isn't filled with all of her "things." She spends a great deal of time constantly complaining about this. She also knows that her trips are having problems, but rather than talking to them and trying to help, she lives by her motto of "when you don't know what to do, do nothing" which leads to the trips problems being very overblown and dramatic.

The trips problems are the girls think their husbands are cheating on them, and their brother's wife leaves him because she's pregnant and he doesn't want kids at that time. Do they try to solve anything by talking? No, they just keeping arguing with their spouses and themselves. They have fights with themselves and their spouses in public. These characters weren't anything like they were in the first book. The dialogue was boring and repetitive and made the characters seem more like childish, spoiled brats rather than the adults they were supposed to be. There is a father in the picture, but he doesn't help. He complains about having been made to go work in the candy industry instead of following his dream of making furniture, which he gets to do (and quite well with no experience) helping rebuild everyone's home.

The story was short enough that I thankfully finished it in two days. The ending was very predictable and left room for another installment to the series, which I hope won't happen. This book is not worth the time to read. There are much better books out there that can be enjoyed. I'm sorry I bought it. I normally pass books on to others when I'm done, but this one is going straight to the library where it will probably enjoy a long shelf life collecting dust.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: I expected to zip through this 'little' book but I suffered through it and finally after 5 days of getting no where, I skipped to the last page.

A big waste. Lame plot. I hate it when all the main characters have similar names...all beginning in "S". And we were dealing with triplets and their spouses. Too confusing.

Rating:
Summary: Such A Disappointment! A waste of my time and money!
Review: I picked this up for a quick pleasant read with a Christmas theme. I am an avid reader of all types of books, but this was such a waste of my time. The "trips" characters were underdeveloped and ridiculous. How did this get past the editor?

Rating:
Summary: for Fern Michaels fans
Review: In Larkspur, Pennsylvania, newlywed sisters Hannah and Sara believe their spouses are cheating on them as they work late every night. Actually colleagues Dr. Zack Kelly and Dr. Joel Wineberg are working together on a surprise to take a year off and sail with their beloved respective spouses Hannah and Sara; they just have not told them for fear of their reactions.

Meanwhile the third of the Cisco triplets (brother to Hannah and Sara), Sam is stunned when his beloved wife Sonia leaves him. He is shocked because he thought their loving relationship was going great; he is unaware that Sonia left him because she is accidentally pregnant and he just told her adamantly that he is not ready for a family.

A tornado wrecks the home of the triplet's grandmother; all the neighbors pitch in to help with the rebuilding of the structure. Will this opportunity enable the three married younger generation couples to take the time to talk or will the Cisco siblings join the statistics of failed marriages? If a sweet-toothed grandmother has a say these three marriages will turn to bliss by Christmas.

Though whimsical and starring delightful characters many of whom performed in NO PLACE LIKE HOME, the triple marital woes of FAMILY BLESSINGS seem ridiculous. All three couples could resolve their troubles in one page or less by communicating with each other for five minutes. Still the cast is likable and spending the holidays with Fern Michaels is always fun even when the despair appears so unnecessary.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming!
Review: No one tells an emotional family story like Fern Michaels. She always makes you feel like you are part of the family as well as the story. Family Blessings is a heartwarming holiday book that you won't want to miss.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh!
Review: This book starts out interestingly enough, but it soon grows tedious due to the highly unbelievable actions and motiviations of its characters. The six protagonists act more like grade school children than adults, and they become fatiguing very quickly. The book is full of cliched platitudes about life, and the use of physical violence on the part of the women strikes another sour note. Was this supposed to be funny? The only positive thing I have to say about this book is that it's short, so the reader is soon put out of her/his misery in watching the unentertaining antics of people who need to grow up.

This one isn't even worth borrowing from the library.

Rating:
Summary: No sex, violence or human degradation - just a good story!
Review: What a wonderful story Fern Michaels has written in "Family Blessings". It is so refreshing to read a novel that does NOT contain murder, sex and human degradation.

The story is set in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania in the days before the Thanksgiving Season. The cast of characters is of a grandmother, son and a set of triplet grandchildren and their spouses. Grandmother, Cisco, is the family patriarch and owns a family business of candy making. A tornado descends on their peaceful lives and destroys not only houses but the surface peace of the family.

Deep down, the triplets - Hannah, Sara and Sam who are all newlyweds - have never come to terms with only relying on each other. Father, Jonathan, has never told Cisco of his true desire to work as a carpenter rather than in the family business. Other family secrets surface when Sara and Hannah's husband's start spending nights away from home. Sam's wife, Sonia, leaves him because of a secret she is keeping.

Ezra, Cisco's significant other, has asked her yet again to marry him and this time she says yes. They will be married on Christmas Day. The big question though is can all the family secrets be brought out into the open and resolved happily in time for the wedding. Grab a copy of "Family Blessings" to find out the answers.