Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: I'll have to reserve a higher rating until I finish this saga. I think I will have to agree with the previous reviewer that gave a low rating. The dialog is so stilted I can't believe what I am reading. I AM a Belva Plain admirer, but her writing here leaves much to be desired.
Back to this unbelievable couple and their disolving marriage.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a straight 5 starts!!
Review: I'm an avid reader of Belva Plain's books, and After The Fire is just another one of her masterpieces. I really don't understand how anyone who've read this book can think otherwise.
Rating: 
Summary: Plain and Predicatable, but still worth reading
Review: If I hadn't read other books by Belva Plain, I would give this book 5 stars. It was a good book, but she has done so much better in books like Evergreen and Legacy of Silence. This was a fast read (I did it in 3 days, along with working 8 hours each day and studying) and I was wrapt until the middle of the book, when I realized exactly what was going to happen. I finished the book, with hopes that I was incorrect. I was disappointed with the transparent climax, but overall this is worthwhile, especially if you haven't read any of Plain's greater works or can forget that you have.
Rating:
Summary: my review
Review: In this story, Hyacinth is a woman who is faced with one of the most horrible moments in a mother's life: she is forced to give up her two children for a moment of craziness she already regrets.Faced with an incredible emptiness, she is able, with the help of a total stranger, to rebuild her life. what once seemed an impossibility becomes her career and she is good at it. The story is interesting and the plot keeps you interested till the end. It makes a good summer reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Written Book-All About Truthfulness in Relationships
Review: In this story, the picture-perfect marriage dissolves when Hyacinth's physician-husband, is found to be having an affair. One terrible night she commits an act that she will regret for the rest of her life. An act that gives her husband the ultimate weapon; blackmail. The price of his silence is uncontested custody of their two children. When her own beautiful, angry mother wants to know why Hyacinth won't fight for custody, she can give no anwers. For she alone knows, or believe she knows, what really happened on that fateful night.
Rating:
Summary: Belva Plain has done it again - another great story!
Review: Once again, Belva Plain has written a compelling family storythat was hard to put down. I have read all of her novels and enjoyed"After the Fire" immensely. The characters are interesting and believable; and the story combines both tragedy and happiness. A must read for her fans. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A Grandma Book!
Review: This book falls into the category of what I call Grandma or Mothers Day books--probably given as a gift.
Hyacinth,a quiet,gentle and totally non-sophisticated girl is swept off her feet by a handsome,go-getting young doctor who is quick to seize any opportunities to advance his career.Against the advice of her mother,she marries him and sublimates her budding artistic career to him and their subsequent children.Unfortunately, Hyacinth is too much of an innocent to realise that this monster is "Gaslighting" her into a state of subjugation to the point where he forces her into a divorce and the signing away of her children.He convinces her that she's guilty of a criminal offence which,if brought to light would ruin the lives of her family.I am normally a fairly mild mannered person but I could cheerfully have punched this excuse for a man till he was a pulp! After many lonely years,she meets a new love who sets her on the path to newly realised talents and who helps her to rediscover her self confidence and future happiness with him and her reclaimed children.
Rating:
Summary: Is Belva Plain kidding?
Review: This book isn`t worth the paper it is written on!!It contained nothing of substance.Where did this couple live?What were their last names?What was a day like at home for the mother(Hyacynth)?What were her children like?What was important to her?These are just a few of the subjects not even touched upon by the author.I couldn`t get past the first 100 pages.I hav not read any of this authors other books since Evergreen,which I loved.This book was a waste of my time and money.I will not ever waste anymore money on this authors books.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my kind of book
Review: This is the first novel by Belva Plain I have read and I can say without hesitation it will be my last. I found the entire premise to be nothing short of silly (how many mothers would give up their children based on their supposed involvement in an accidental fire?) The plot was laughable and the main character pathetic. Sorry I wasted my time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Pleases again
Review: This is the story of the marriage of Hyacinth and Gerald. Hyacinth is a romantic, na?ve, young artist who believes in true love and in the integrity of Gerald; her new husband fresh out of medical school. Gerald has big plans for the future and a need for the society that Hyacinth's family can provide. Hyacinth's needs are those of any wide-eyed young girl who has lived in the shadow of a beautiful mother. She needs only the true love that she doesn't believe she truly deserves. The reader enters Hyacinth's world, feels her trust in the man she loves, and lives her heartbreak as the marriage slowly dissolves, taking her children with it in an ugly divorce based on blackmail. We follow Hyacinth as she finds the courage to make her way alone, while grieving for her children and for the comfort and warmth of the home she had made with them. Her intense love for Gerald turns to hate and to a fierce determination to get her children back. In After the Fire, Belva Plain skillfully weaves the tendrils of suspense in a story filled with joy, betrayal, sadness, and ultimate victory!
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