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Most Helpful Favorable Review
87 out of 93 people found this review helpful.
Firefly Lane
This is a wonderful book that I COULD NOT put down! It a beautiful story of friendship, but has other relationships including mother-daughter and wife-husband that are complex and fascinating. Hannah does a terrific job presenting 2 of the many different paths women can...
This is a wonderful book that I COULD NOT put down! It a beautiful story of friendship, but has other relationships including mother-daughter and wife-husband that are complex and fascinating. Hannah does a terrific job presenting 2 of the many different paths women can take in life: wife and mother or career. The characters in her book chose the extremes of these paths and therefore have difficulty combining them. I think that she presents these 2 choices beautifully and almost everyone can relate to these women's struggles and triumphs. And as a mother, her description of motherhood is spot-on! This book has humor, love, loss, laughter, tears.....it has everything. It is the best book I have read in a long time. I truly can't recommend it enough.
posted by Tidbitsofscott on September 8, 2009
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21 out of 65 people found this review helpful.
This book may hinder your IQ.
This book was awful! I hated it so much that it made me angry! The entire novel is cliché. The characters are flat in that they never seem to learn anything or change their behavior, even though they apparently have moments of realizing that they should. The writing is ...
This book was awful! I hated it so much that it made me angry! The entire novel is cliché. The characters are flat in that they never seem to learn anything or change their behavior, even though they apparently have moments of realizing that they should. The writing is unappealing and weak. I even found 10 typing errors as I read; it made the book seem cheap. The thing that irritated me most was that the main character's mother is referred to as "Mom" or ¿Mrs. M.¿ interchangeably throughout the novel. I couldn't stand reading sentences like "Mom crossed over to the bed," it sounds juvenile. I am an adult give me some adult reading material. I guess I wouldn¿t feel so offended if I had grabbed this novel from the Harlequin section; but I didn¿t. It was sitting there in the literature section as though it deserved to be with classics! I was shocked when I found out that this author has written other books! I guess any tripe can be published these days. The characters come from a fantasy world where having a drugged out mother can be easily offset by grandparents who had good stock. Come on! Does that ever really happen? NO! It doesn¿t. The situations these characters faced just weren¿t credible. I felt that this book actually set women back! The one character uses sex as an antidepressant and the other is too busy feeling sorry that she chose family over career to do anything worth reading about. If you want women¿s issues to be a theme in your novel- please make them realistic and important. The choice between staying home and going to work is a difficult one that all women face at some point. It¿s not something that we choose quickly or a decision we make easily. I just wish it would have been dealt with in a way that I, as a reader, could take seriously. In conclusion, if you want to make yourself dumber, go ahead and read this book. If not, grab something by Margaret Atwood!
posted by Read-Something-Worth-It on February 11, 2009
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Anonymous
Posted September 8, 2009
I Also Recommend:
Firefly Lane
This is a wonderful book that I COULD NOT put down! It a beautiful story of friendship, but has other relationships including mother-daughter and wife-husband that are complex and fascinating. Hannah does a terrific job presenting 2 of the many different paths women can take in life: wife and mother or career. The characters in her book chose the extremes of these paths and therefore have difficulty combining them. I think that she presents these 2 choices beautifully and almost everyone can relate to these women's struggles and triumphs. And as a mother, her description of motherhood is spot-on! This book has humor, love, loss, laughter, tears.....it has everything. It is the best book I have read in a long time. I truly can't recommend it enough.
87 out of 93 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous
Posted July 14, 2009
Amazing
First, I have to admit that I have a weakness for "big books". I love a story that spans years. This book is something special. I finished it several days ago but just can't get it out of my mind.
I am always reading at least one book but I can't seem to get past this one. I almost feel disloyal to Tully and Kate to just continue reading something else. Crazy, right?
These girls grew up around the same time I did and perhaps that is why the story was so touching and personal for me. However, I think anyone who has had a "best friend" no matter what age can truly enjoy this story.
I had never read this author before and I'm looking forward to reading her other books. If they are anywhere as good as this one I'm in for a great treat!
Read it! Love it!38 out of 44 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous
Posted March 13, 2009
A Real Tearjerker
I thought the book was very well written. This is my first experience with this author, but it will not be my last. The plot was very well researched and well written. It was a very sad book, but it relates the story of life-long friends - one who puts her friend above herself and the other who thinks only of what she wants and needs, not thinking of how this hurts her friend and family. I was not able to put this book down once I started reading it.
27 out of 30 people found this review helpful.
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Read-Something-Worth-It
Posted February 11, 2009
This book may hinder your IQ.
This book was awful! I hated it so much that it made me angry! The entire novel is cliché. The characters are flat in that they never seem to learn anything or change their behavior, even though they apparently have moments of realizing that they should. The writing is unappealing and weak. I even found 10 typing errors as I read; it made the book seem cheap. The thing that irritated me most was that the main character's mother is referred to as "Mom" or ¿Mrs. M.¿ interchangeably throughout the novel. I couldn't stand reading sentences like "Mom crossed over to the bed," it sounds juvenile. I am an adult give me some adult reading material. I guess I wouldn¿t feel so offended if I had grabbed this novel from the Harlequin section; but I didn¿t. It was sitting there in the literature section as though it deserved to be with classics! I was shocked when I found out that this author has written other books! I guess any tripe can be published these days. The characters come from a fantasy world where having a drugged out mother can be easily offset by grandparents who had good stock. Come on! Does that ever really happen? NO! It doesn¿t. The situations these characters faced just weren¿t credible. I felt that this book actually set women back! The one character uses sex as an antidepressant and the other is too busy feeling sorry that she chose family over career to do anything worth reading about. If you want women¿s issues to be a theme in your novel- please make them realistic and important. The choice between staying home and going to work is a difficult one that all women face at some point. It¿s not something that we choose quickly or a decision we make easily. I just wish it would have been dealt with in a way that I, as a reader, could take seriously. In conclusion, if you want to make yourself dumber, go ahead and read this book. If not, grab something by Margaret Atwood!
21 out of 65 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous
Posted March 9, 2009
Boring
I'm shocked by all the positive reviews for this book. I had to quit sometime around their college years, I just found it boring and uninteresting. There was very little character development.
16 out of 42 people found this review helpful.
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annoymous
Posted January 11, 2010
Fantastic
this was a fantastic book! i loved this book from start to end. a must read book. you will have every emotion in this book and it will keep you on your toes and want to keep reading.
15 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
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lovesthelibrary
Posted May 6, 2009
Disappointing book!
I bought this book because of all the positive reviews, but I was very disappointed. The story has the potential to be good, but the author loaded it down with so many references to 70's and 80's "stuff" - products, gadgets, songs, hairstyles, shows, etc. It was like she was trying to sell the book by appealing to the nostalgia of those of us born and raised in the same time period as the characters. I also couldn't help feeling that the book was written with the goal of turning it into a made-for-tv movie. The scenes, settings and wardrobe are all there to be plucked by the production team. The characters, while likable at first, never really developed into anything. For me, it was a shallow, completely unsatisfying read.
14 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
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gr8bean
Posted May 4, 2009
Super cheesy
I was in the mood for a good, purely entertaining but not thought provoking, girly book...but this was just too painful to read. It felt superficial at best, predictable and again...just overall ugh. I know this was what I was looking for but this one was a little too fluffy.
12 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
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A wonderfully touching tale
When fourteen year old Kate first saw her new neighbor Tully at the bus stop, little did she know this would be the beginning of a life long friendship. Two young girls on the cusp of womanhood, seemingly opposites on the outside, have a lot in common on the inside. Set in the Pacific northwest during the turbulent 70¿s, Tully and Kate¿s burgeoning friendship sets the tone of the book. They will be best friends forever they assure each other. Even through the most trying of times, they are there for each other. Granted, there are bumps along the way, even a betrayal of trust and a little heartache, but whose life journey does not include such hurdles? <BR/><BR/>This is also a wonderful story of mothers and daughters fraught with the joy and angst of their intricate relationships. A story line that explores life¿s hopes and dreams, some shattered, some realized, develops over a span of 30 plus years as Tully and Kate find out who they are and what is really important in life.<BR/><BR/>This is a book I found hard to put down. The story line is excellently written as Hannah brings an emotional depth to the characters that is extremely compelling. The characters are so well developed and plausible, you can¿t help being engaged with them throughout the entire book. Along with Kate and Tully, the peripheral characters greatly enhance the story line,particularly the two girls' mothers. The time frame is described perfectly with all the accoutrements of the day: the music, the dress, the social attitudes. It was like reliving it all over again. All these elements together make for a magical tale, one that will deeply resonate with the reader for a long time. I just loved it! 5*
12 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
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cupcake171
Posted January 13, 2010
I Also Recommend:
loved this book!!
i read this book last summer and i really loved it! it made me laugh and cry and everything it was just really good read about friendship! loved how the chapter's were named after songs too i even downloaded a few to my ipod!!
11 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
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Jabberwocky
Posted April 13, 2009
Not worth the Paper it's written on
Talk about pulp fiction. This author appears to have virtually NO writing skills. The books was chosen by our book club -- can't imagine why. It is unoriginal, clumsily written and hackneyed. What a waste of time and paper.
9 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
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MakeItStop
Posted July 3, 2009
Staggeringly Bad
I finished this book. I don't know how I did it, but I finished.
Never have I read something so insipid and poorly conceived. Each time I thought it had gotten as transparently silly as it possibly could It took a turn for the worse.
Relationships and characters are ill conceived and poorly drawn, and any plot to speak of is so ploddingly pointless that it will break your heart.
Wading through this book most certainly killed off more than a few brain cells but the one positive thing I can say is that it leaves you ravenous for a decent read!6 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous
Posted May 5, 2009
Disappointing
After reading the very positive reviews of Firefly Lane, I bought the book and was excited to dive in. Midway through the book (when the main characters were adults) Tully and Kate became so one dimensional and extreme that I no longer cared about them, their issues and how the story ended. I was very disappointed.
6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
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1louise1
Posted April 29, 2010
I Also Recommend:
NICE READ! GET COMFORTABLE!
It is the story of Kate and Tully, two girls who could not be more different. Kate is a shy girl and does not have any friends. Tully is sophisticated and popular. This is a friendship that lasts for more than thirty years. NICE READ! Get comfortable!
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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-JACKI-
Posted February 1, 2010
I Also Recommend:
Enjoyable read
True to life struggles that we all can relate to; Life's journey of ups and downs, struggle and success, bonds and relationships, all to create an interesting, exciting read. Big thumbs up! You won't be disappointed!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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ONE WORD- FANTASTIC!!
I read all kinds of novels and this book was a fantastic read. I related to alot of the feelings that were involved in the story and I was pleased with the way the writer created many realistic situations that many of us are faced with in love, marriage, friendship and motherhood. There were many moments that frustrated me, but in the end..it was another great book that I couldn't put down!! This was my first Kristin Hannah novel and I am excited to read more of her books!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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srdMO
Posted January 9, 2010
Beach Read
Good story! Easy read perfect for the beach.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous
Posted January 2, 2010
Any best friend should read this...
The book is about two people who are so different and become best friends for life. It is about ambition, bonds, broken hearts and anything else you might find in a book. Especially for women in their 50s who have had best friends and know about those unbreakable bonds.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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btok09
Posted October 27, 2009
A great read
I enjoyed every second of this book. Both of the main characters stole my heart from the beginning and I very much enjoyed following them along their lifelong journey together. I recommend this to everyone.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Loved It!!
I loved this book! I didn't want this book to end! Each character in this book truely evolves as time progresses. I wish all books were this wonderful!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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