THE BAR HARBOR RETIREMENT HOME FOR FAMOUS WRITERS by Terri-Lynne DeFino

Publisher:     William Morrow

Published:     June 12, 2018

ISBN:        978-0062742674

Genre:      Women’s Fiction

Format:     Print

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

TWO-1/2 HEARTS

 

Decades ago Cornelius Traeger came up with an idea for a very special retirement home.  A place where a special group of people – writers who create or put to pen the dreams of others, who create new worlds, exciting adventures and take their readers to a different time and place, could retire in peace and comfort among their own.  He also created it for what was perhaps his greatest love—Alfonse Carducci—who came only long after Taeger’s death and at the end of his own days. 

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home is more than a haven for famous authors.  It is a place of security and hope for the staff that work there.  Foremost among them is Cecibel.  A young woman with a sad past who finds her happiness in the writings of others, most particularly her personal hero, Alfonse Carducci.  When Alfonse arrives her world changes in ways she never imagined.  It gives her the courage to explore her own world, her personal demons and to find love.

I really wanted to not just like, but love Terri-Lynne DeFino’s THE BAR HARBOR RETIREMENT HOME FOR FAMOUS WRITERS.  I set my expectations too high.  Cecibel is a wonderful character who is buried in the author’s repetition of her being a “monster” due to a tragic accident that happened years ago.  Over and over she raises how Cecibel looks, how she hides how she looks, how she suffers from her past.  I got it the first twenty times—I didn’t need to be reminded on pretty much every page that takes place in the present.

The book alternates back and from between the 1950’s and 1999.  I’m seeing more and more of those back and forth between time period books and I personally find them jarring.  For me they don’t create a cliff hanger feeling of what is to come next—they mostly break up the story so I have to go back to the original time period to pick it up again.  What I’ve begun to do in those cases is I read all the earlier time periods and then move on to the next time period so the story reads chronologically for me.  If they’re done as flashbacks that’s fine.  But the bouncing back and forth is distracting. 

I loved the idea of a place for authors, famous or otherwise to retire together.  And I really loved the idea of four old friends writing one last book, together, a story told from each of their own characters. 

The book is worth a look if you are a dedicated reader.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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LEFT A LOVE STORY by Mary Hogan

Publisher:     William Morrow

Published:     June 19, 2018

ISBN:        978-0062742674

Genre:      Women’s Fiction

Format:     Print

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

FOUR-1/2 HEARTS

Fay and Paul Agarra are on the vacation of a lifetime in Spain.  Married for over twenty years the New York Supreme Court judge and his wife are enjoying Malaga away from the pressures of the job, the rush of the city and all that entails.  When Fay proposes a side trip to Alcazaba in the Alhambra Paul protests but like the loving spouse he is, he agrees.  Almost there Fay needs to stop to heed the call of nature.  They pull into a small roadside business and Fay tells Paul to wait for her.  When she emerges he is gone.  After several panicked hours she finds him at the airport.  Paul doesn’t understand the problem—of course he would be at the airport.  They were leaving, weren’t they?  He doesn’t remember leaving her off or that he continued on without his wife.  Fay’s irritation continues when they return home.  Paul refuses to see what he did.  In fact, he has no memory of it.  As the days go on, Fay begins to notice other changes in his personality.  Changes that she just doesn’t like, they make her worried.  Concerned, Fay turns to their family and Paul’s co-workers but no one is willing to recognize that there is a problem.  And then one night the unthinkable happens and only now does the family and their friends realize that something is wrong, so very wrong with Paul.

LEFT A LOVE STORY by Mary Hogan is the rare must read book for everyone—male or female, young, middle aged or old.  While told as a fiction, the subject matter—a loved one’s descent into dementia, is something that will touch all of us at one time or another.  It will be a family member, a close friend, a co-worker or their family member, a neighbour and even ourselves.  It doesn’t suddenly steal our minds and connections to each other.  It is insidious, moving so slowly that you may not even be sure it is happening.  Such is Fay and Paul’s story.  He a brilliant jurist, she a loving and devoted wife who has made him her world.  Fay describes Paul as her “there kind of guy” and when he is seemingly suddenly no longer there, her world verges on crumbling.  Hogan’s depiction of Fay takes her from a seemingly simple housewife and builds her into a strong woman, capable of taking care of her own.  She learns when to ask for help—and how to make it happen.  She is an amazing character that shows how we all can find that special kind of inner strength to cope with the worst life can throw at us.

I found Fay’s talking to the building a little odd. It made me wonder if she was the one whose mind was starting to fail.  The ex-wife, Brenda, was annoying.  Both of these recurring threads seemed more to up the word count than to move the story along.  Had Paul loved Fay as much as she says he does, he would have put his foot down with Brenda’s incessant incursions into their life. 

That said, LEFT A LOVE STORY is a wonderful, heartfelt story that, as I said, everyone should read.

The book is worth a look if you are a dedicated reader.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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