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Awesome Book !!!!! Jun 10, 2008
The plot of this book was very intriguing, well-developed, and multidimensional. The characters in To My Senses were so lifelike and compelling. I definitely recommend this book. You will not want to put it down!!!
Excellent read Jun 08, 2008
This was an Excellent book. The characters are so real and they will stay with you for a very long time. The plot worked on so many different levels that I could not put it down. This is one of the few books I have read that actually delivers on entertainment and carries you away until you come to the last page and just want to start over at the begining again. Great Read!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
From J. Kaye's Book Blog Apr 29, 2008
I can't remember ever loving characters in a book as much as I loved Nicci, her dad, her uncle, Ned, Val, and yes, even the Hoover sisters. I just didn't want this book to end. I felt like I knew each one intimately and didn't want to close the pages on them.
I tried to read it in one day. Stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, but couldn't make it. Even though I tried to gobble it up, this wasn't a fast read. I felt myself slowing down, not wanting to miss anything. I wanted to feel exactly what the characters felt.
When I read the ending the next morning, I am glad I didn't finish at 3:00 a.m. The ending was so surprising, so shockingly stunning, it would have jolted me awake and I'd never gotten to sleep. Here's a little bit about the book.
Practical Nicole "Nicci" Beauvoir wanted more out of life than marriage and kids. She had plans to be a nurse. She's fiercely independent and didn't feel she needed a man to muck up her future.
When David Alexander, a struggling artist, sees Nicci at a garden party and the attraction starts there. They both find they have something in common. Each lead a life void of passion by closing off a part of themselves to the world. Against her better judgment, Nicci responds to the passion David offer. Soon she finds out she's been deceived. David isn't what he appears to be.
It will take the aid of her meddlesome family to get them back together, but the story will not end there. The author saves a super-sized twist for last in this page-turner of a book.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
This novel is extremely well written! Aug 27, 2007
This book is dedicated to a section of New Orleans that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It was the land of stone lions, parquet floors, white tuxes and overflowing champagne glasses. Nicci, a nursing student from a well-connected family, is in the middle of everything. She seems to have her feet solidly on the ground--which makes her a perfect narrator. Not that she is immune to the hazards of love. I'm a guy who on a long trip might listen to a Books-On-Tape romance, but what I found interesting reading this one was wondering what it says females value in a man (besides the requisite, rugged looks and mysterious past). Just when it seems the answer is, someone who will listen to what a woman says and consider it thoughtfully, the author gives us a male character who does just that. Nicci finds him boring.
I liked the different levels of plot: Colleen and Eddie (immature), her father and uncle (old rivals for Nicci's now deceased mother), a business rivalry between the two prominent families. These dynamics counter balance the major conflict: Nicci's betrayal by a painter/gigolo who seems to be the bad boy women might secretly desire ("I was helpless beneath him, yet I hungrily waited, eager to submit to his desire. He teeth teased my skin, his hot breath burned against my cheek."). He brings out the artist in her. Nicci's hobby is reading and she would like to be a writer some day--sounds like a profile of the audience.
This novel is extremely well written except for some soap opera lapses ("I was sure in the end she would get what she wanted from David Alexander, as she always did. I wondered if he would get what he wanted from her in return."). The characters are sharply realized and the dialogue, snappy. Occasionally there's a line like, "I noticed how her eyes were all over me like a swarm of bees, buzzing with curiosity," that reminds us we are in the South. Actually I wish the character of the city played an even a greater role, mirroring the book's theme more.
The title is a tease too. It could mean, "come to one's senses" or" loose yourself to them" and savor the chicory of life. There's a dynamite surprise for our narrator in the middle of her bridal shower that provides a perfect turning point, plus an unexpected twist to the book's conclusion. Perhaps women like the melodrama of a relationship--feeling the urge to pull away, only to be held tighter. Alas, Nicci, you fell in love with someone other than me. But for 300 pages it was nice to imagine what that might have been like had it happened.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
up all night Aug 08, 2007
This was most definately the best overall read of my summer. Romance, mystery, a New Orleans setting and thick sarcasm that reveals the wit and humor interlaced throughout the lesson of this story. The lesson, being, for the reader to remember what makes them happy, as many of us forget in our rapid pursuit of a "purposeful life". Even a casual reader could not miss the deep meanings of life mixed into this delightful and sexy story. I hope to meet Nicci again and shame myself into more of my own happy pursuits.
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