joyce dewitt

The Irish setting is charming and the story engaging

Revisado: 02-25-25

I liked the narrator, who, with a pleasant voice, easily switches back between Irish and American accents. The story moves along quickly going back-and-forth between the two main characters, women in different time periods. Both of them have a similar type of problem, and the parallels are interesting. I liked everything about this story except for one thing, and that was that we did not get closure on one of the characters.

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Decent people stuck in a terrible situation

Revisado: 02-20-25

Spoiler alert: I’m not giving details of exactly what happened, but I can’t help but describe how this story made me feel, and in doing so, providing the general path of this book.

This is a very well written and performed story, but I can’t say I liked it. In fact, there was very little to enjoy in this sordid and heavy tale. It’s very depressing and left me with a hopeless feeling for these characters. It’s realistic, and paints a seedy side of life.It portrays a neighborhood in which young men & some young women succumb to bad behavior and just go down from there, forsaking even their families. However, the three main characters are not evil
people, but with so much badness all around them, the possibility of not being affected by it is very slim.
They made a bad choice out of desperation, fear, and fierce protectiveness that takes their lives down a path of forever being haunted. Their backs were against a wall, they were very young, and they couldn’t see a better way out of the dilemma in which they struggled, although most people probably would not have done what they did. They didn’t act quickly enough in the beginning, and that pushed them into the poor action they took.
I felt extremely sorry for the young woman at the center, and the young man who helps her. They are good people, but in the world in which they lived, it was inevitable that they were doomed for sadness. Life is tough in certain areas. and it’s hard to imagine living with much joy in such a place.
I kept hoping that something would turn up to end the story on a decent note. An epilogue with at least a bit of peaceful
closure would have helped, but under their circumstances, the harsh ending is more probable. At least we could have been provided with the aftermath of the injured person at the end.

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Sink or swim

Revisado: 12-16-24

The main character has to act boldly or give up, and I admired her bravery. At every turn she faced danger & defeat but she didn’t quit. This is a dark story about domestic violence, and feels full of impending doom that’s uncomfortable but also kept me interested. The story is compelling but fairly predictable. It does have one or two interesting turns that were unexpected but they aren’t shocking twists. One thing I didn’t like is that the kind group of people who helped her hide were never mentioned at the end. They deserved recognition and closure, and perhaps even the promise of continuing friendship. I can recommend it for readers who don’t mind stories that aren’t that unique, and follow a pattern of one disaster after another, beating down a strong woman who will prevail in the end. This isn’t really a spoiler, because anyone familiar with this type of book knows the pattern and what will happen. The narrator is fairly good, and did a nice job of switching voices between characters. She gives the main character’s mother a spot on voice for who she is, spicy & salty with a good heart. The only thing that bothered me about the narration is that too often, the main character sounded so down that I couldn’t imagine her ever fighting back. But of course, she does.

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Amazing characters

Revisado: 11-10-24

This post WWII novel immerses the reader in the 1950s with a view of how life was for young women at that time. The characters are complex and their stories are so engrossing. The story kept me hooked from the very beginning.

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Too predictable

Revisado: 10-28-24

I liked the characters but from the first 10 minutes, you know what’s going to happen. It’s a cute story, just nothing new here. If you like books that play out just like you think they will, with impossibly perfect leads, then it’s an easy read, mildly entertaining. It got pretty sappy at the end though & I didn’t think it was worth a credit.

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Sad mystery

Revisado: 08-26-24

This mystery about two missing children from the same family ends in a way that is mostly satisfying, but it does leave a few ends untied. I want to know what happened to Alice’s sister, Delphine. Does she ever take accountability for what she has done? I also want to know how the family continues to deal with the second disappearance.
It’s well written and very intriguing, and describes problems with teenagers and their parents very well. I enjoyed it and I would recommend it. I would like to know the result for several of the characters.

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The plot is very good. It’s engaging aging and it has a lot of surprises. It’s a sci-fi -fantasy/magical tale..

Revisado: 07-13-24

I liked the plot, although at times it was a little difficult to follow. There are a lot of organizations, good guys/bad guys that sometimes turn into good guys. I was expecting a lot from this book because I have read other books by this author, along with her partner. But this one did not delight me as much as the others. The narration was just OK. And I think that’s why I could not really get fully into the characters. The women especially just did not connect. their parts were read very matter-of-factly with not much real emotion. Rowan and Charlotte in the other books written by this author are so much more intriguing & interesting. In this series of books, most of the time Addie really annoyed me. The men in the other stories just seem so much stronger, so much more romantic in a rough way. You know they’re going to get together and you just can’t wait for that to happen. However, in these books, yes you know they’re going to get together, but their trials and tribulations just do not seem as serious as they should have. Even though there was kidnapping and violence, none of it could compare to what happens in the other series. i don’t know if it’s because of the accents, but I just felt like the people reading these books didn’t do an outstanding job. I just didn’t really feel that attached to the main women characters in this story nor the men. There was just something lacking. I think perhaps it was the humor in the other books which is not forced. There were attempts at humor in this book, but they just did not quite appear spontaneous and clever like they do in the other stories. I appreciated the books because it’s a nice long read and being able to listen to it kept me very entertained for a couple of weeks. But unfortunately, I can’t give it a high rating.

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The Little Mermaid Fights Back

Revisado: 05-29-24

This is the end of The Twisted Pages series that presents Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid retold with dark twists, brutality, and passion. I love how these stories as fairy tales for grownups, have enough likenesses to the originals to be recognized, yet also plenty of creative flair with new details & changes. These stories are not meant for anyone who doesn’t love fantasy. But if you have a side that tires of today’s contemporary fiction about wayward teens, family secrets, divorces, lost kids, career women, cheating spouses, finding oneself, and serial killers, then any of the books by these authors are a welcome break. The only thing that gets a little repetitive is that the romances always start out as dislike/hate turning to like/love and then intense finding each other as the perfect loves of their lives. That part, while humorous and fun, is also very predictable. All of the women lead characters are strong, beautiful, charismatic, and brave, and the male leads are handsome, smart, bold, strong, and very romantic after they first spend time denying that love is developing. It’s all in fun but this is definitely part of the plot of all if their books.,
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire series, as well as all the other books by these authors. I can get totally lost in these story & the narration is absolutely outstanding.

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Suspenseful Susans

Revisado: 03-21-24

This book grabbed me very early on & it was building suspense from then on. The story ends up completely differently from where I thought it was going. I highly recommend it for crime/mystery lovers.

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I can’t finish this

Revisado: 08-20-23

I have really tried to get through this book, but I give up. It’s awful. The story is terrible, half of it doesn’t make any sense. For example, and I’m trying to make this not a spoiler alert, why and how would the holier than thou devout preacher’s wife daughter go out and do something so out of character and reprehensible? It’s simply does not work in the story. This is about a dysfunctional family coming together for their dying mother, who is just about as horrible as a mother can be. There isn’t anything redeeming about her and not much about any of her kids either. I could’ve put up with the story, but the narrator is horrendous. I absolutely could not take it anymore. I would give this a quarter of a star if I could.

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