Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: Actually, I'd probably give this 3.5 stars. While you're taking the ride of reading "Fortune's Daughter" it is great, but the end leaves something to be desired. It did not satisfy me as much as I thought it would. Lila and Rae are great characters, although Rae's devotion to her boyfriend is pretty sickening. I guess I would reccomend reading this, but if I had to rate all of the Hoffman books I have read, this would be at the bottom. Practical Magic and The River King are about a zillion times better, they are probably Hoffman's masterpieces. If you do read this book and are disappointed, you should still read other books by Hoffman, because this is not the greatest represtentation. But I'm not giving it enough credit- it's not a bad read, and I do suggest that anyone who likes Hoffman should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Actually, I'd probably give this 3.5 stars. While you're taking the ride of reading "Fortune's Daughter" it is great, but the end leaves something to be desired. It did not satisfy me as much as I thought it would. Lila and Rae are great characters, although Rae's devotion to her boyfriend is pretty sickening. I guess I would reccomend reading this, but if I had to rate all of the Hoffman books I have read, this would be at the bottom. Practical Magic and The River King are about a zillion times better, they are probably Hoffman's masterpieces. If you do read this book and are disappointed, you should still read other books by Hoffman, because this is not the greatest represtentation. But I'm not giving it enough credit- it's not a bad read, and I do suggest that anyone who likes Hoffman should read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Alice Hoffman Never Disappoints
Review: Alice Hoffman is an amazingly talented writer. Each of her books lives and shimmers with some of the most evocative, lovely imagery of any author writing today. You know her characters personally. They live in your neighborhood or are members of your family, and you know them so well that you can't help but ache for each step they take through the course of the book.In "Fortune's Daughter," Hoffman parallels the lives of two very different women. Rae is young, single, and pregnant and on the verge of losing her self-absorbed, shiftless boyfriend. Lila is middle-aged and happily married to Richard, who grows roses and lemon trees in unfriendly soil in their California backyard. As Rae's and Lila'a paths cross and Rae's pregnancy progresses, we are drawn intimately deeper into watching how one woman's life comes out of confusion into clear focus while the other loses her center and slips into madness. It's a delicately and finely drawn dance, and Hoffman executes it perfectly. If anything was unsatisfactory about this book, it was that it ended when it did. After I finished it I sill wanted to go back, to read at least two or three more chapters to know what happens to Rae & Lila, to Jessup & Richard, and to all the others whose lives entwined in this story.
Rating:
Summary: Fortune's Daughter
Review: Alice Hoffman just happens to be my favorite author. I've read all of her books and anxiously await whatever's new to come out. Fortune's Daughter was no exception. In this novel, she created characters that you could really get a picture of. All of them, from Jessup and Rae, to Lila, Lila's parents, Lila's husband Richard and his parents, they were all so imperfect. I like that in Hoffman's stories. No one is perfect, they all have flaws and insecurities and that makes the story so much more believeable. What I like about Hoffman so much is that she makes the ordinary interesting and somehow, even if what's she's describing is fantasy-like or unreal, she has a way of making you believe it could actually happen. Nothing is ever way out. I highly recommend this book. As a mother, it made me think twice about my relationship with my own son and what's important to me.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Fortune's daughter
Review: Amazon will not allow me to choose less than one star! Quite possibly the most revolting piece of drivel I've ever had the misfortune to read. I regret the day that a friend gave this book to me. I only continued to read it because I was incredibly bored on a work assignment. Also I was fascinated that it could possibly get any worse...it could! Dear Ms. Hoffman, please see a therapist immediately! Being female, I am completely revolted by this completely asinine and far-fetched representation of "female psychology". Give me a break! Ms. Hoffman's writing style and scenarios are beautifully written and expressed, but her subject material lacks merit. Dear Ms. Hoffman - if this is the best subject material you can come up with, please keep it to yourself and don't degrade the rest of us with your pseudo-mystical view of feminine existence. You have a talent for expression - please either use it wisely on a more substantive subject, or don't use it at all!
Here's what this book is really about: A magic imaginary baby; the desire of (supposedly) all women for babies; how difficult your imaginary life becomes when you can't imagine your imaginary baby; and oh yes, all men are pigs. The end.
Writings like these are exactly the sort of things that make men treat women as second-class citizens (as pointed out by another reviewer) in the first place. I guess if you act like you're dumb, and quack like you're dumb - you must be dumb. Thanks to Ms. Hoffman for personifying women that way!
I find this book idiotic, twisted and pathetic. On the other hand, I was nearly out of kindling for the fireplace anyway, and it will come right in handy.
Rating: 
Summary: Spare Me!
Review: Amazon will not allow me to choose less than one star! Quite possibly the most revolting piece of drivel I've ever had the misfortune to read. I regret the day that a friend gave this book to me. I only continued to read it because I was incredibly bored on a work assignment. Also I was fascinated that it could possibly get any worse...it could! Dear Ms. Hoffman, please see a therapist immediately! Being female, I am completely revolted by this completely asinine and far-fetched representation of "female psychology". Give me a break! Ms. Hoffman's writing style and scenarios are beautifully written and expressed, but her subject material lacks merit. Dear Ms. Hoffman - if this is the best subject material you can come up with, please keep it to yourself and don't degrade the rest of us with your pseudo-mystical view of feminine existence. You have a talent for expression - please either use it wisely on a more substantive subject, or don't use it at all!
Here's what this book is really about: A magic imaginary baby; the desire of (supposedly) all women for babies; how difficult your imaginary life becomes when you can't imagine your imaginary baby; and oh yes, all men are pigs. The end.
Writings like these are exactly the sort of things that make men treat women as second-class citizens (as pointed out by another reviewer) in the first place. I guess if you act like you're dumb, and quack like you're dumb - you must be dumb. Thanks to Ms. Hoffman for personifying women that way!
I find this book idiotic, twisted and pathetic. On the other hand, I was nearly out of kindling for the fireplace anyway, and it will come right in handy.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Fortune's daughter
Review: Fortune's daughter was a novel that I found myself reading as often as possible. Each woman's story was touching and realistic. I could feel the emotions that Rae went through when her boyfriend left her pregnant and lonely. I cried for Lila as she revisited her painful past. This book was very well written and tied two woman together who needed each other whether or not they were ready to admit it. They were able to find strength in each other when no one else understood what they were going through. The outcomes of their situations were suprising and touching. I would definitly recommend this book to my girlfriends.
Rating: 
Summary: Mystical
Review: Fortunes Daughter is about Rae, a young, unmarried girl who is awaiting the birth of her child and Lila, a fortune-teller with no interest in the future who lost her child when she was a young, unmarried girl. Rae and Lilas lives, fates and futures intertwine as each tries to make peace with the past and become a better person for the future. Not knowing the what the book was really about, Lilas fortune telling, visions, nightmares, spirituality stuff was different then what I would normally read. I didn't like how Lila was so emotionally torchered all her life and never fully found peace. Without spoiling the storyline, I can say that as an Adoptive Mom I REALLY didn't like how one element of the book was treated. At all. All in all, it was an OKAY read. I read it in a weekend and like all of Hoffmans other books, she pulls you in with her ability to turn everyday events into enchanting words.
Rating:
Summary: A writer with the Midas Touch
Review: Hoffman spills language before her readers like golden coins, storytelling rich with imagery and texture, words spinning out like fables or folktales. The characters in FORTUNE'S DAUGHTER are multi-faceted. Rae, a young woman who finds herself pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend, embraces her approaching motherhood. Distanced from her parents, Rae casts about for someone to help guide her through natural childbirth. She chooses Lila Gray, a pyschic reader of tea leaves, and it is Lila who breaks our hearts. Living with her own demons, Lila is the most beautifully rendered of all the people in this story. Lila has yet to forgive herself for giving up the baby girl she had at eighteen, allowing her parents to place the infant for adoption. The parents are unwilling to help their daughter, turning their backs as Lila endures the pain of childbirth with only her cousin, a nurse, to help her. The agonies of birth are stunningly rendered, the images powerful and recognizable. Lila's emotional development is arrested during this mournful time, and death becomes her suitor, courting daily. With the spring thaw, Lila is seduced back to life, falls deeply in love and marries. She spends the following years running from a truth she has been unable to share with her husband. Rae's advancing pregnancy torments Lila with thoughts of her own lost daughter. She packs her suitcase, leaving with no explanation, determined to find her child. What Lila discovers is not what she's expected, dreamed about. Returning home, her mind struggles with acceptance, unable to see little else, including her patiently loving husband. The marriage is strained as Lila isolates in her world of imagination. Finally, Lila is given the courage to release the past, lay it to rest, and reach toward the future. Hoffman creates such a fully realized Lila, that she virtually walks off the page, the reader wishing for this woman's happiness.
Rating:
Summary: A writer with the Midas Touch
Review: Hoffman spills language before her readers like golden coins, storytelling rich with imagery and texture, words spinning out like fables or folktales. The characters in FORTUNE'S DAUGHTER are multi-faceted. Rae, a young woman who finds herself pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend, embraces her approaching motherhood. Distanced from her parents, Rae casts about for someone to help guide her through natural childbirth. She chooses Lila Gray, a pyschic reader of tea leaves, and it is Lila who breaks our hearts. Living with her own demons, Lila is the most beautifully rendered of all the people in this story. Lila has yet to forgive herself for giving up the baby girl she had at eighteen, allowing her parents to place the infant for adoption. The parents are unwilling to help their daughter, turning their backs as Lila endures the pain of childbirth with only her cousin, a nurse, to help her. The agonies of birth are stunningly rendered, the images powerful and recognizable. Lila's emotional development is arrested during this mournful time, and death becomes her suitor, courting daily. With the spring thaw, Lila is seduced back to life, falls deeply in love and marries. She spends the following years running from a truth she has been unable to share with her husband. Rae's advancing pregnancy torments Lila with thoughts of her own lost daughter. She packs her suitcase, leaving with no explanation, determined to find her child. What Lila discovers is not what she's expected, dreamed about. Returning home, her mind struggles with acceptance, unable to see little else, including her patiently loving husband. The marriage is strained as Lila isolates in her world of imagination. Finally, Lila is given the courage to release the past, lay it to rest, and reach toward the future. Hoffman creates such a fully realized Lila, that she virtually walks off the page, the reader wishing for this woman's happiness.
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