Just Between Us

A veeeeery slow start to this book - so slow that I almost gave up on it. Too much repetitive character development in the beginning. (Not that character development is bad - but pointless repetitiveness is.) Once the poop hits the fan, however, it's almost as if it's a different book. The characters suddenly come to life, are dynamic, and actually DO something in response to their situations. I liked it about halfway through, although the end wrapped up much too neatly for my taste.

I was riveted to this book. It was a really good story and I found myself really connecting with the characters. However, I thought that the all the problems in the book came together too soon and too tidily.

This is chick-lit for a slightly older crowd. The women and their problems were reasonably interesting. I found Holly's story the most entertaining, however her tale is the most chick-lity of the bunch, so maybe that is why.

There were a few things I didn't like, for example the author kept using the turn of phrase "the idea of". i.e. one of the women is worried that her new boyfriend's kids won't like the idea of her. And this phrase is used ALOT. Also all the women, though family, are really dealing with tthier problems on their own. There was little interaction amoung the stories, which might not be the most realistic.

A good light read.

Honestly, I read this book years and years ago. It does not really hold up because I think the main problem is that there is some heavy hitting stuff happening in this one (alcoholism) but the most serious storyline kind of get glosses over a bit in the end and it just leaves the whole thing really unresolved. Maybe because I didn't see happily ever afters for the three main charaters.

Readable story about a family where everything seems to be coming apart at the seams. The Parents appear to be in a happy marriage but what you see on the outside isn't always the whole story.
Their three grown-up daughters have to deal with their own issues and lives as well as their parents'.

This is the first Cathy Kelly book I read and now I wonder what took me so long?! Even when I had a few friends constantly telling me that I should try her. As one of these friends said, it reminded me of Maeve Binchy in her good days.
Four different women with different lifes and problems, everything seems real and we are just transported to their day to day. It wasn't a difficult read, quite by the contrary, but 634 pages seem a bit too long...
More Cathy Kellys will follow, that's for sure!

Another romantic story about a family learning to cope with their problems. The thing about Cathy Kelly is, there isn't a writer who could write more predictable stories, but somehow she completely gets away with it, because she writes with so much warmth.