Pat Gaudette

‘Fiction Books’

Flirting With Forty is the third book I’ve read by Jane Porter and while it may have the most improbable story line, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every page, even those that had me tearing up a little.

Flirting With Forty is told from the perspective of Jackie Laurens, a newly divorced, on the brink of forty, single mother of two, who laments the life she had until she discovered her wonderful and successful husband was having an affair… with a gorgeous and much younger woman. In the divorce, she gets the big house and the two kids, and he gets to keep the second home, the Porsche, and the younger lover. It’s not an even split by any means. Read more »

Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter was sent to me to review because it deals with divorce and midlife issues, relationship themes I primarily focus on. As I mentioned in my review just below, this was the first of Porter’s books that I’ve read but it definitely won’t be the last.

Mrs. Perfect is told from the perspective of Taylor Young, a woman who is the absolute perfect “trophy” wife. She’s flawless, always in total control, and she manages her household and a staggering array of community involvements without raising a sweat (or so it would seem). To tell the truth, I pretty much hated her and was quite happy when her perfect little world started crumbling. I’d be surprised if anyone lives life for long in that kind of rarefied atmosphere except Kimora Lee (and who isn’t just slightly happy to see that even she can’t keep the weight off?). Sorry, I think I got off track a bit.

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I’ve just finished reading Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter. To be honest, until I received a copy of one of her latest novels, Mrs. Perfect, to review, I hadn’t heard of Jane Porter. After absolutely loving Porter’s writing style in Mrs. Perfect, I wanted to read more and bought Odd Mom Out. I wasn’t disappointed.

Maybe if I read Harlequin novels I wouldn’t have been so clueless about Jane Porter because she’s written 22 novels for Harlequin since 2000 (this week’s count). That’s in addition to her four “chick lit” novels: The Frog Prince, Flirting With 40, Odd Mom Out, and Mrs. Perfect.

This Jane Porter shouldn’t be confused with the Jane Porter who wrote The Scottish Chiefs in 1810. Read more »

History Lesson For Girls: A Novel by Aurelie Sheehan, is the story of two teen girls growing up in the 1970s. The teen years are difficult enough but add in dysfunctional family issues and sometimes terrible tragedy is the result.

From the back cover: In 1975, Alison Glass, age thirteen, moves to Connecticut with her bohemian parents and her horse, Jazz. Shy, observant, and in a back brace for scoliosis, Alison finds strength in an unlikely friendship with Kate Hamilton, the charismatic but troubled daughter of an egomaniacal New Age guru and his substance-loving wife. As the sincere but misguided “Women of History” plan the town’s bicentennial (complete with red, white, and blue Porta-Potties), the girls escape into the world of their horses, seeking refuge from the chaos in their lives.

I enjoyed this book even if it left me feeling more sadness for the characters than I would have liked.

Endings: A Novel is a first novel by Barbara Bergin, an orthopedic surgeon living in Austin, Texas with her husband and two children. Bergin and her husband own a ranch and she competes and has ranked nationally in the reined cow horse performance sport.

Bergin writes about what she knows, orthopedic surgery, ranching, and competition horse events. While she might go into too much detail at times, particularly during surgery, it doesn’t detract from the writing or the storyline. I enjoyed reading this book… I think.

I was expecting a different ending. I read the ending the first time and went back to read it again because I wasn’t sure I’d understood what had happened to all the characters. After a second reading I decided to read the last chapter a third time just to make sure I’d interpreted the chain of events correctly. I’m not so sure that the ending was the right one for the story but it’s the ending the author chose and it’s her story to end in any manner she chooses.

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Stripped is Brian Freeman’s second novel, a murder mystery set in Las Vegas. Detectives Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial, from Freeman’s debut novel, Immoral, are working on separate murders that end up being linked to a brutal crime from the past. It’s a race against time to try to stop a serial killer from killing again. There are plenty of twists and unexpected turns in this very fast-paced thriller. Before reading Stripped, I’d never heard of Brian Freeman. Now, he’s definitely one of my favorite mystery writers.

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Mademoiselle Victorine: A Novel, written by Debra Finerman, is a fictionalized accounting of historical events in 1860s Paris. Victorine, the lead character, is less than a courtesan but more than a streetwalker. She uses her physical beauty and sexual skills to work her way through the upper levels of Parisian society in her quest for rich men, married or not. I couldn’t find anything to like about such a self-absorbed and shallow character, but I thoroughly enjoyed Finerman’s depth of detail throughout the book. I felt that if I closed my eyes I would actually be in that period of time.

Daisy Dooley Does Divorce is a chick-lit novel by Anna Pasternak. Daisy Dooley is 39 and divorced after leaving a three year marriage, her first. Now, as her biological clock ticks madly away, she’s back living at home with her ditzy mother who raises dachsunds and taking another plunge into the dating pool. Daisy is British which means “shag” is not a hairstyle nor is “sod” something that covers the front lawn.