I have to be honest here...I didn't love this book. I found the characters unmemorable and one-dimensional with an author trying her hardest to make them quirky and interesting and memorable. Perhaps reviewing a book like this is unfair because I'm not really a HUGE fan of the "chick-lit" genre. I like them well enough to read a few every year but I don't wait in line dying to get lost in another tale about friends, marriages-gone-awry, and the life with children. It isn't that I hate all that, per se, but I tire from it easily and quickly.
And I tired from it in this book. I found the girls to be annoying and not one of them were relatable. They were just too stereotypical.
The other problem I have with books in this genre is they move along hundreds of pages and the end with barely more than a fizzle. Ends tied nicely. No loose ends. No sadness. No thrill. No hardly wait until the last page feeling.
Blah.
Jo who had a hard childhood but rose above it to become a success in her job but, alas, boy crazy. She is given a friends child to raise because this Rachel, who is so all-knowing posthumously, decides that Jo needs lessons more than considering what is best for her daughter? Really? And after a few, again stereotypical, falls (like hiring a professional chef for mac and cheese...really? Give me a break) the little girl is magically like a daughter to her now. Ahhhhhh.
Sarah. With the perfect doctor on a shelf only to find out he is really a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles and she has been idolizing him for 14 years. Okay, who didn't see immediately that she was never going to end up with him? Even as she flew to L.A. I knew she was going to end up with Sam. Her and her nursing poor children in third world countries grew incredibly tiresome and it always seemed convenient, however, that Sarah was always around when she needed to be. It is one thing I don't like authors doing: gratuitous character placement for the betterment of the story. In another words: lazy writing.
Kate. Typical soccer mom...ugh...even typing that makes my skin crawl. I HATE THAT REFERENCE. The underappreciated (what mom isn't?) mom who shuttles her children around endlessly and sets pretty table for Thanksgiving. Who jumps out of planes and flys across the country on a whim only to feel guilty every minute of every day because her husband can't find little suzie's cleats and God Forbid the man can't figure out what to do when they run out of peanut butter.
Rachel. Okay, I think I would have felt more connected to this character...which is the ENTIRE premise of this book...had I known Rachel before she was dead. The fact that she sent these letters to her friends left me empty and uncaring. Oh sure, we got tiny glimpses but what the writer did with this character is build her up to sheer perfection. Rachel, according to this book, didn't have any flaws. Okay, maybe slightly unorganized...what did happen to poor Gracie's birth certificate?
Let me tell you what else I didn't like about this book: the timing was off. I wish I had dogeared it when I noticed it but there were a couple of times...when Sarah and Kate were in India and Kate had done all these things and expected hubby to be on a plane any minute and it sounded as if she had spent days doing all this stuff...only to have Sarah arrive the next morning from her romp with the infamous doctor-lover meaning only a mere 24 hours, TOPS, had transpired making Kate's list of all she did about impossible. It happened again and I had to read back a page or two just to see if I missed something. Again, LLAAAZZZYYY. The writer didn't double check her timing. She just wanted to get the information out and didn't bother to notice that the timing was off. That's like having a battle of the Civil War outside your window in 1866, It's those kinds of details that truly bug me.
And, it all ended just as I had expected it to. Sarah flys out to meet her love, Sam, and will happily-third-world-style everafter. Amen. Kate confronts her hubby and they cry and they don't understand and you don't appreciate me, no you don't love me anymore, hug and kiss and have hot sex and agree to put the kids in less sports because mom's are people too and all that running around is just not a good idea. Jo quits her big important job because raising Gracie is just more important. Who needs jobs and money when you have...wow...an entire year saved up...good luck Josie-pie. But! Wait! She gets hired back because her boss just thinks she is all that and a bag of chips too. Apparently this book does not take place in present day. (What? Bitter? Who me?) And, Rachel. Well, she is still dead and thankfully not sending out any stupid letters anymore. RIP.
I gave the book three stars but it really deserved more like two, however, I gave it three because: 1) for people who truly enjoy the uneventful, totally predictable storylines about women and their many "challenges" in life ranging from career, friendship, marriage, and children, this book is probably right up your alley and you will totally dig it and can't see why I dislike it so much. I almost feel it unfair to judge this book too harshly for the book club because I am sure it is the same for people who read historical fiction and yawn their way through the trials of the scullary maids. 2) I finished this book (and now typing this review post) in early June and if I have two stars on this book I'm afraid no one will want to read it. Yes, I'm so sneaky. After this post is pubished I will change my rating to Two Stars.
At the end of this book it gave a reading group guide...so here are some questions if you need a jumping off point to discuss...(and believe me, if you loved or like this book more than I did, please don't feel timid to share...you will most difinitely NOT hurt my feelings. I love discussing books in where people have different opinions than my own. That is what makes a fun and interesting and enlighting book club experience. So feel free to speak your mind...)
1. Which of the four women do you most relate to? Is it the one whose lifestyle most resembles yours? If not, why?
2. Rachel chooses not to tell her friends about her illness because she feels she is sparing them. Was this the right decision? Is it ever right to keep the news of a potentially fatal illness from your loved ones?
3. One of the themes of this book is that friends know you better than you know yourself. Rachel, in particular, has a good bead on each of her friends, but Kate, Jo, and Sarah also, in some cases, see each other more clearly than tey see themselves. Do you know your friends better than they know themselves?
4. Kate's fifteen-year marriage faces a crisis born of the stresses and responsibiities of raising a modern family. Do you relate to her troubles? Would your parents relate to her troubles? What about your grandparents?
5. Do you consider Kate's behavior...skydiving and traveling to India...to be irresponsible for a mother of three young children? If you were in Kate's position, caught between a deathbed promise to an old friend and the responsibiities of family, how risky a task would you be willing to do? Where is the acceptable line of risk for a mother? Is that line the same for a father?
6. Why do you think Sarah clung to the memory of Colin for so long? Why did she resist Sam despite the strong physical attraction? If Rachel's letter had not forced Sarah to seek Colin, do you think she and Sam would have ever gotten together?
7. Rachel chooses to have a child as a single mom, using a sperm donor. Knowing her lifestyle, what do you think about her choice? Why do you think she chose to have a child at all?
8, Jo's attitude toward Kate's busy life is skeptical and dismissive but chages quickly when she is forced to be a full-time mother to Gracie. have you seen friendships between mothers and their working peers disintegrate under the same pressures?
9. Rachel mentions that the friends have grown apart because they didn't properly maintain their friendship. Rachel's three best friends have become so busy with their own lives that they don't realize what is happening to their friend. But Rachel seems to understand. Do you understand?