"Friends Forever"

Friends Forever by Danielle Steel, Performed by Nick Podehl, AF, 2012, Playaway digital audio book, 8hrs, rating=2
Source:  library

Two girls and three boys, all with strikingly different looks and talents, meet at the Atwood school as young children. Together, they become an inseparable group - known to outsiders as "The Big Five" - and lean on one another through all the bumps and bends of childhood and adolescence. But when the tight-knit group graduates and scatters to different colleges, their lives diverge dramatically, and some of the friends are lost forever... Those who remain will struggle to understand that even bonds that once seemed unbreakable are not proof against tragedy - but that they can also transform into something new and entirely unexpected... (Goodreads)

This is definitely not a Christmas read!  Not that it was advertised to be one but just letting you know that it was not a jolly book.  Quite depressing actually.  It practically didn't let up.  I was hanging on to the hope that there will be a happy ending.  Well, let's just say that I was so dispirited that it would have taken an amazingly, over-top ending to snap me out of my displeased trance. 

The premise was sweet enough, from kindergarten to adulthood these five individuals demonstrated the important bond lifelong friends can have.  In between were rough trials that tested their friendship and relationships with their parents and siblings.  Overall with a theme of examining a generational age prone to self destruction or tragedies.  Usually that kind of look in life is right up my alley but I didn't buy it here.  There was something about the storytelling that just didn't quite pierce into me.  There were several heart wrenching moments that should have but they felt superficial instead.  The repetitiveness didn't help as well but rather became somewhat annoying. 

Bless Mr. Podehl's heart because he did a great job at narrating but it was the script that just didn't allow him to convey depth.

This wasn't an awful book because there were tender moments and complex relationships worth exploring.  Perhaps that's part of the problem, too many things were going on.

Brief Reviews

33 Habits of a Really Good Man by Yvonne Swinson, NF, 2010, 79p, rating=3.5
Source: won from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

This is the author's sweet and tender tribute to her father, Bill Wells.  A mini memoir.  Each story prefaced with simple quotes of wisdom then gives examples of how Mr. Wells was inspired by them and then lived them.  A wonderful legacy he left on how to make good principles become habit.  Inspirational.  A Soup for the Soul feel.

I cried at the author's poem.  There lies her talent.

Unlocking the Power of the Spirit by Campbell Gray, NF, 2010, 118p, rating=3.5
Source: won from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

A good book to help recognize and make use of the power of the Holy Ghost.  Mr. Gray gives examples from personal life experiences to make the points.  It's a good refresher course for strong, active LDS members and inspirational for those struggling to find the Spirit. 

Hotel Vendome by Danielle Steele, AF, 2011, Playaway digital audio, 9hrs, rating=3
Source: library

A trying father-daughter story.  Father, Hugues, left by wife for a rock star.  He gets custody of their daughter, Heloise.  He owns and manages a prestigious hotel and Heloise grows up in that life.  No surprise she wants to follow in her father's footsteps ..even though it wasn't what Hugues would have wanted for her.  Overall the story was about growth for the both of them as individuals. 

Character wise, with the exception of Hugues' delay in telling Heloise about Natalie, Hugues seems to be too perfect!  He had all the answers regarding hotel and life.  And Heloise, well, she was down right a spoiled brat when it came to finding out her father's personal affairs.  These qualities I found to be a flaw so it made for a stirring (not the touching kind) read for me.

By the way, Fred Stella did a wonderful job narrating this book.  :)

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks, AF, 2008, audio CDs, 10.5hrs, rating=2
Source: library

Nicholas Sparks love stories usually move me but this one didn't really do it for me as a whole.  The soldier (Logan) and best friend (Victor) angle was a classic lure so that part had potential.  I suppose I didn't completely buy into the premise ..soldier finds a picture of a pretty woman (Elizabeth) and it ends up giving him "luck" in surviving the war, so he goes to seek out the woman to thank her but doesn't tell her the entire story before they fall in love with each other so when the secret finally comes out, yikes, trouble!  Of course, there's got to be other elements to spice things up, like the woman has a son (Ben), a meddling ex-husband (Clayton, who you'd like to smack a few times!), and a wise grandma (Nana).  My favorite character ended up to be Logan's dog, Zeus ..he was consistently genuine.

Looks like the movie version might be better than the book.  Zack Efron looked smokin' on the film trailer!  Reason I wanted to get my hands on this book in the first place.  Bummer that the book wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.  Though, I really liked the ending.  It was it's saving grace. 

"44 Charles Street"

by Danielle Steel, AF, 2011, Playaway audio, 9hrs, rating=2

"The plumbing leaked; the furniture was rescued from garage sales. And every inch was being restored to its original splendor—even as a relationship fell apart. Owner of a struggling art gallery and newly separated from her boyfriend, Francesca Thayer does the math and then the unimaginable. She puts out an advertisement for boarders, and soon her Greenwich Village house becomes a whole new world. First comes Eileen, a pretty L.A. transplant, now a New York City schoolteacher. Then there’s Chris, a young father struggling for custody of his seven-year-old son. The final tenant is Marya, a celebrated cookbook author hoping to heal after the death of her husband. Over the course of one amazing, unforgettable, life-changing year, the house at 44 Charles Street fills with laughter, heartbreak, and, always, hope. In the hands of master storyteller Danielle Steel, it’s a place those who visit will never want to leave."  (book cover)

I'm glad I'm rediscovering Danielle Steel.  She's not the raunchy romance novelist that I pegged her out to be.  I don't remember which of her books that I read in the '80s that gave me that impression but the raunchiness is gone!  In fact, she's mixing in a bit of mystery (ex. Southern Lights).  Anyway, this book was straight out romance.  Man and woman meet, buy a house and live together, partnership a business, then things just don't work out and woman scramble a plan to save house and business. 

The meat of the story then became Francesca's relationship with the three tenants she had to take in to her home.  There was no surprise that through time they built a friendship and bond.  That development was a nice read.  That was pretty much the best part.  I liked the exploration of the dynamics of roommates. 

Overall, there wasn't anything too exciting, even with the Eileen incident, that wowed me.  Even the happy ending didn't add much depth ...too predictable.  But I wouldn't consider the read a complete waste of my time ... I liked Marya and the Frenchman.

"Big Girl"

by Danielle Steel, AF, 2010, Playaway, 11hrs, rating=2.5

"Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body-conscious L.A. Her father, Jim, is tall and slender, and her mother, Christina, is a fine-boned, dark-haired beauty. Both are self-centered, outspoken, and disappointed by their daughter’s looks. While her parents and sister can eat anything and not gain an ounce, Victoria must watch everything she eats, as well as endure her father’s belittling comments about her body and see her academic achievements go unacknowledged. Ice cream and oversized helpings of all the wrong foods give her comfort, but only briefly. The one thing she knows is that she has to get away from home, and after college in Chicago, she moves to New York City. Behind Victoria is a lifetime of hurt and neglect she has tried to forget, and even ice cream can no longer dull the pain. Ahead is a challenge and a risk: to accept herself as she is, celebrate it, and claim the victories she has fought so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is terrific and discovers that herself." (cover blurb)

This book started out strong and I was really liking it because I could relate.  It was straight forward and was quickly telling the events right after the other, building sound character developments.  But somewhere before the last third of the book, it went downhill.  From there, the book dragged on and took too long to get to the resolution.  This resulted in saying the same thing over and over again and so Victoria's character got too whiny and so dense.  Poor girl, when it rained it pours.  Hence, her great potential got weird and in someway the story went all over the place and unnecessary side stories crept in. 

I was liking what it started to offer ... a strong and sweet sister-sister relationship, courage to be independent, evolution of true friendship, and determination to overcome an emotional scar.  But it didn't wrap it up neatly for me in the long run.  Before the point where it went downhill for me, I could have closed the book there and would have given the book at least 4 stars ... bummer!

P.S.  I sure wanted to smack (at the very least) Victoria's narcissistic father and enabling mother!!  Grrrrr!!!!!

"Southern Lights"

by Danielle Steel, 2009, Playaway audio, 9hrs, rating=3.5

This took me for a loop.  I was at the library for a quick browse at the Playaway rack and saw this ...Danielle Steel, I figured a romance book.  I haven't read one in ages so I picked it up without reading the blurb.  When I listened to it at home, it started off in a mystery fashion.  I was disappointed!  I was looking forward to romance and it wasn't.  Never occurred to me that an author would go out of his known genre (back in the 80s I pegged her out as a romance novelist).  I was enlightened!

So the story starts off with a chase and capture of the elusive Luke Quentin by New York detectives.  Then they got lucky and gathered substantial evidence that presented Luke as the snuff serial killer.  So this is where Alex Hamilton, the main protagonist, comes in.  She is the assistant DA that would be prosecuting Quentin.  But then threatening letters started to surface that were addressed to her 17yo daughter, Savannah.  Of course, in fear of her safety she had to turn to her ex-husband, Tom, for help.  It had been 11 years since she had left her southern life with him but she had nowhere else to turn.  So she sent Savannah to live with her father for 3-4 months while she was preparing for the huge trial.  From the get go Tom's current wife, Louisa, had it out for Savannah.  Those few months promised to be hell with Mrs. Cruella de Vil! 

Though initially disappointed thinking that I had another psycho-thriller book in my ears (having just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter), the story actually focused on the personal life of Alexa.  We learn the background to her past southern life and get sucked in on the drama that enfolds.  But this time around I was preparing myself for a twist.  I was waiting for a dark moment to pop into the memory lane segment, after all the story started out about a suspected killer.  Did it come?  I can't tell you.  I don't want to spoil it for you!

I enjoyed the set of southern characters in this book ... southern hospitality with a hint of snobbishness.  I'm certainly ruined from ever voicing the phrase bless her heart!, unless of course I want to be mean (just kidding, this was a fictional story and not necessarily representative of southern culture).  Overall, we meet a variety of intriguing personalities.

This was a nice surprise and it turned out to be mostly a "page turner".  I personally think it could have ended at chapter 19 (or 20, can't remember for sure).  Those last few chapters could have been summed up in a quick epilogue or could have been used as the beginning to a sequel, so that was my main hiccup of this book.  What I did appreciate was the overall theme of family ties and cultivating relationships.  Oddly enough it was also somewhat a hiccup moment ... everything turned out too smoothly.  This makes me sympathetic to an author's search for a happy medium for their readers... just can't please everyone!