Off Season
by Anne Rivers Siddons
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.35 You Save: $24.64 (99%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Off Season
Book Review: What's the mystery?
Summary: 4 Stars
SPOILER ALERT -- come on, folks! It's pretty plain what happened at the end of this book. Hubby had an ongoing affair with Wifey's spiteful girlhood Nemesis, whom he had met while alone -- off season -- at the couple's summer place in Maine. The sight of the lookalike son his mistress bore him so shocks Wifey when she meets him years later -- also off-season -- that she drops dead on the spot. She then wakes on the other side in the arms of her true love -- who is NOT her cheating dog of a husband but a boy who drowned when she eleven years old and has been her guardian spirit ever since. The end.
It's a nicely written book overall. But I agree with some reviewers that the kitty was a bit much.
Also, writerly tics are setting in -- why does every ARS book seem to have a white-blond dreamboat and scads of redheads? An irrepressibly, pointlessly evil woman? A supposedly loving but unfaithful husband? Blacks who talk like Mammy in "Gone With The Wind"? Down-Easters who sound as though they just crawled out of some Stephen King trailer park but nonetheless say "you-all" like Southerners? Endless references to BO and other malodorous emissions? And why does the present lead character have a name straight out of "Colony" but seems unrelated to those particular Potters and Constables?
These are the things that mystify me. Too bad because otherwise, the lady can certainly write!
Book Review: Liked it, didn't love it
Summary: 3 Stars
I wanted to love this novel as I have others written by this author. And there are certainly elements in it that I did enjoy a great deal - her description of her childhood was particularly appealing and reminded me of my own special summer place at the beach. I was also moved by the description of her mother's illness and death, and Lilly's reaction. I cried when Wilma died - I am still recovering from the death of my beloved first dog over two years ago. I also appreciate reading a novel about a woman in her fifties since I'm one of those people!
But there was a lot in this novel that didn't really ring true. I was turned off by the ethereal relationship between Cam and Lilly... it just wasn't realistic - his courting her was particularly odd. Maybe there was just too much mysticism to it, I don't know. But they didn't seem very real to me - or maybe that's the point. She was looking back at their relationship and sometimes, memories don't always accurately reflect the reality.
Maybe I just wasn't reading closely enough, but the ending totally caught me by surprise. I didn't particularly like it and don't think it fit the characters... at all. I suppose that's life, right!
Overall, though, this story has stayed with me for a few days, and I re-read the last few chapters to see if I "got" it any better. I did not.
Book Review: ' NOT HER BEST "
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed parts of it which kept me going enough to want to finish and see what & how 'ARS ' would tie all this up . Thank goodness I borrowed this one from my Library . I won't repeat what most people who gave it 3 stars or less have said , BUT, I felt she didn't know herself how to end this story til " Eureka " ...a light came on in her head and within such a few pages at the end it was supposed to have answered all your questions ....did it ? I think there was too much talking cat ...which I suppose was really Lilly answering her own questions most of the time like speaking to oneself or a dead loved one ...til the end when the cat answers for her . I really think this last part could have saved the book if she was allowed more pages OR gave it more thought and didn't rush the ending ....leaving me kinda shocked " saying .....whaaaa happened ? "
Ages ago I read " UP RIVER " and enjoyed it . after which I bought a couple more which disappointed tho, so, from then on I borrow her books with the hopes I'll come across another novel of hers which is worth my time & money .
Very few writers can be consistant. One which rates great reading about 90 % of the time , is the novelist " Anita Shreve ".....rarely disappoints ( except her last one ; ) sorry .
Book Review: All over the place...
Summary: 3 Stars
I liked this story, but did not think it was as fully developed as some of the author's other novels.
I did enjoy the writing style and was enthralled with the middle sections of the book- basically the parts that take place in the past. I did not however enjoy the whole *possible spoiler* communing with her dead husband plot line. I also thought that the revelation at the end was a little skimpy and not worth the build up of the rest of the novel. Yes, I was surprised by the "revelation" but was that because Anne Rivers Siddons wove a great story, or because she just threw it out there? Yes, we get bits and pieces in the last couple of chapters and I realize that Lilly was suppose to be super surprised, but I don't think it was properly built up. A little more was needed I think. And I also thought that the relationship between Lilly and Peaches needed a little more fleshing out.
I'm a romantic, but I think that Lilly and Jon needed to be a couple of years older to really believe their storyline. Even 13 or 14 would have worked better for me. But perhaps I'm not allowing for the differences in the generation, and having trouble believing that present day 11 and 12 year old could have and recognize that depth of feeling.
Book Review: Off Season is a good read!
Summary: 4 Stars
Like many other reviewers, I too have read almost all of Anne Rivers Siddons books beginning with The House Next Door and Fox's Earth. And like many other reviews here, I too loved some of her titles such as Colony and Outer Banks.
And while I really did enjoy this book, I had trouble with two aspects of the book. The first was the intenisty of a relationship between an 11 year and almost 13 year old. And convoluted ending. I finished this book scratching my head wondering who was a certain person and was another individual born from an adulterous liason. In some ways I felt as through the author tired of the subject and rather abruptly ended the book. But even if she did, she never fully wrapped up the narrative and unlike other books which leave an ending to your likes, this ending should have been more straight forward. Still until the last chapter and epilogue, I might have rated this title with 5 stars.
Please don't discount thsi book on the basis of a four star review. The pages are filled with wonderful descriptions of a summer home in Maine and some rather interesting characters. And maybe some day the author will write another book like Colony, which this book did remind me of on certain pages, which just blew me away.