Inseparable

Christine #2

by Dora Heldt, Jamie Lee Searle (Translator)

Still reeling from her recent divorce, Christine, the beloved protagonist of Dora Heldt’s uproarious Life After Forty, is sure that yet another birthday is the last thing she needs. But here it comes nonetheless, the big 4-4, in all its lonely midlife glory. Making matters worse is Christine’s fear that she has always relied too heavily on the support of her girlfriends. As the big day nears, she begins to think that none of those women can understand just what she's going through. Alarmed by Christine’s growing despair, her best friend and sister hatch a plan to prove her wrong: They will gather together all of Christine’s old friends from the various stages of her life and throw a surprise party the likes of which she has never seen. Of course, finding all of those women turns out to be easier said than done! The final result proves to be a priceless gift, a moving and laugh-out-loud funny portrait of one woman as told through the stories of her friendships.

Genres: Chick Lit, Audiobook, Fiction

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Dora Heldt is the pen name of Bärbel Schmidt, a popular German author. Her 2009 novel, Tidal Shift, reached second place on the bestseller list in Germany.

Reviews

[Kerstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich habe das mit einer Freundin gemeinsam gelesen. Unglaublich rührend, sehr zu empfehlen.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first received Inseparable in the mail, I was all gun-ho about reading it. The summary made it sound interesting, and I just loved the fact that it was about friendship, so I gave it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised! It turned out to be a fun and quick read, even though I had a few slight problems with it.

Inseparable tells the story of Christine, a middle-aged women living a fun, nearly care-free life in Hamburg, Germany. Christine loves the few close friends she has, but she's never been one to really put a lot of faith in friendship, especially with other women. She was scorned once, and in her opinion, why be scorned again? However, Christine's friends as well as her sister decide to surprise for her forty-fourth birthday with a surprise party filled with all of Christine's friends from her past. Their goal is to show her that friends are still important and worth the risk. Will everything work out? Will Christine gain more faith in friendship, or will she move two steps back? Only time and more pages can tell!

One of the things I loved most about this book was the German backdrop. It was also interesting to see not only the various backdrops of the country, but the wide variety of differences between their culture and that of America.

Another high point was the characters. For the most part they weren't the most highly developed ones out there, but I still enjoyed reading about them. I especially liked Christine. She was a strong and timber women, and throughout the book I was continually rooting for, especially when it involved her becoming more close to her current and past friends. I also enjoyed how Dora Heldt introduced a variety of other character POVs. It was fun getting into the heads of all of Dora's friend, that's for sure, and it also added an extra, unique glance into Christine's life.

The plot of this was for the most part slow moving, because it focused more on friendship then on any specific action and adventure. However, it still managed to move the book along at a good pace, especially since I found the way Dora dealt with the friendship theme interesting. Friends are important part of life, and even though some people would rather not get hurt then risk the jump, it's still important to take chances. The women in this learned this over the book, and it really managed to provide lots of great development on their part.

Sweet, fun, and fully entertaining, Inseparable by Dora Heldt is a great addition to women's fiction. I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

Grade: B

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooo schön. Ich wusste nicht, dass dieses das zweite Buch in einer Reihe ist, es steht auch sehr gut alleine da. Und auch obwohl ich mit meinen 25 Jahren glaube ich nicht die Zielgruppe bin, habe ich gut mitfühlen und sehr viel mitnehmen können. Passend zum Thema habe ich das Buch mit einer lieben Freundin gemeinsam gelesen und das hat uns viel zum Reden und zum Nachdenken gegeben. Und ja, am Ende sind vielleicht auch ein paar Tränen geflossen.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

In der ersten Hälfte haben mich die vielen Namen und Charaktere verwirrt. Aber es ist ein schönes Buch über Freundschaften, welches mich in meinen Gedanken zu meinen Geburtstagsvorbereitungen gut unterstützt hat 😆

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bylo mile nalezat Christiiny pritelkyne. :)

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich hätte gern einen Stern mehr gegeben, weil das Buch zumindest besser als der Vorgänger ist, aber dafür hat es dann doch wieder zu viele Schwachstellen.

[Anja]

Mir hat es sehr gut gefallen, leicht zu lesen und man schwelgt selbst so ein bisschen in Erinnerungen und denkt an Freundinnen. Sommer-Leselektüre.

[Jana Heinzelmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich hatte Urlaub mit Papa von Dora Heldt durch Zufall in einem Hostel gefunden während ich in den letzten drei Monaten dort gereist bin. Weil ich gerade nichts andres las dachte ich mir, ich könnte dieses Buch ja mal anfangen denn es klang wirklich lustig. Ich habe das Buch bereits nach einem Tag durch gehabt weil ich die Geschichte super fand! Total lustig geschrieben und eine super Reiselektüre! Da ich danach rausfand, dass dies jedoch schon der dritte Teil einer ganzen Serie ist, habe ich mir die ersten beiden Teile direkt danach auf mein Kindle runtergeladen.

Ich war sofort von der Art zu Schreiben begeistert und mochte auch alle Protagonisten der Bücher da ich bei allen Ähnlichkeiten sowohl zu mir selbst als auch zu Freunden und Verwandten wiederfinden konnte (ich sage jetzt mal nicht wer mich hier an wen erinnert hat…)

Die ersten zwei Bücher waren meiner Meinung nach nur eine Aufwärmübung denn die restlichen drei zeigen, dass Dora Heldt so viel mehr kann! Sie hat vom zweiten zum dritten Buch einen wahnsinnig großen Sprung gemacht. Ich bin mir nicht sicher ob ich die Serie nach Unzertrennlich noch weiter verfolgt hätte, aber da ich ja mit Urlaub mit Papa angefangen hatte konnte ich einfach nich anders als alle anderen auch zu lesen.

Versteht mich hier nicht falsch, die ersten beiden Bücher sind es schon wert gelesen zu werden, aber richtig perfekt wird es erst ab dem dritten. Diese drei solltet ihr auf keinen Fall verpassen. Es macht auch nichts wenn man erstmal mit Urlaub mit Papa anfängt denn inhaltlich macht es keinen Unterschied ob man die beiden Vorgänger gelesen hat oder nicht.

Durch die Einbindung von Christines Familie, vor allem ihres Vaters, schafft es Dora Heldt ab dem dritten Roman super lustige Geschichten zu erzählen. Wenn man denkt, es könnte ja eigentlich nicht noch schlimmer werden kommt es gleich doppelt so schlimm. Jede neue Situation und jedes neue Kapitel ist ein Kracher und ein Lacher nach dem anderen reiht sich aneinander. Manchmal konnte ich über mehrere Kapitel hinweg einfach nicht mehr aufhören zu lachen. Dadurch las ich schneller und schneller weil ich begierig auf mehr wartete und Dora Heldt enttäuschte mich nie. Das führte dann letzendlich dazu, dass ich die komplette Serie in Rekordzeit las.

Man könnte nun vermuten, dass die Geschichten durch ihre Absurdität unrealistisch wirken aber obwohl sich Dora Heldt hier auf schmalem Grad wandert rutscht sie doch nie in die Unrealität ab. Jeder einzelne Charackter trägt extrem zum Erfolg der Geschichte bei. Ich kann mir bei keinem vorstellen auf ihn zu verzichten.

Jetzt bleibt nur noch zu hoffen, dass Christine uns weiterhin begleiten wird und Dora Heldt es nicht müde geworden ist über sie und ihre verrückte Familie zu schreiben.

Mehr meiner Reviews findet ihr hier: http://booksaroundtheworld.wordpress....

[Jasbr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christine, die sich in "Ausgeliebt" von ihrem Mann getrennt hat, ist auch in "Unzertrennlich" die Hauptfigur dieses Romans von Dora Heldt. Den ersten Teil muss man aber nicht zwingend im Vorfeld gelesen haben, man kann auch mit diesem Band einsteigen.
Christine wohnt mittlerweile in Hamburg und arbeitet nicht mehr im Außendienst. Mittlerweile hat sich sich einen Freundeskreis in Hamburg aufgebaut und die Trennung von Bernd gut verkraftet. Als sie allerdings eine Kolumne zum Thema "Beste Freundin" für ein Frauenmagazin schreiben soll, fällt ihr das sehr schwer, aufgrund dem Verrat ihrer ehemals besten Freundin: Die hat sich ja im ersten Teil Bernd geangelt.
Ihre Freundin wollen davon aber nichts wissen und machen sich auf die Suche nach ehemaligen Freundinnen von Christine, um zu deren Geburtstag eine Überraschungsparty zu organisieren.
Was folgt ist ein schönes Buch über das Thema Frauenfreundschaft. Man wird daran erinnert, was echte Freundschaft ausmacht und das man manchmal doch zu leichtfertig eine gute Freundin aufgrund von Umzug etc. aus den Augen verliert. Das hat mir sehr gut gefallen - auch dass das Thema Männer und Beziehungen nur am Rande gestreift wird und hier wirklich die Frauen im Mittelpunkt stehen.
Was mit allerdings gefehlt hat, ist die Spritzigkeit, die man sonst bei Dora Heldt findet. Der Humor ist nur sehr gering vorhanden, das Buch regt eher zum Nachdenken an und wirkt sehr ernst. Geschmunzelt habe ich eigentlich nicht, was mir etwas gefehlt hat.
Gut gefallen hat mir die Mischung als der Geschichte selbst, den Kolumnen die eingeschoben werden und die Fragebögen. Das lockert die Geschichte auf. Außerdem sind diese "Fremdkörper" sehr gut eingebunden und werden in der eigentlichen Geschichte immer wieder aufgegriffen, so dass sie nicht allein stehen.
Ansonsten ist das Buch sehr flüssig geschrieben und angenehm zu lesen. Ein perfektes Buch für Zwischendurch und ein Plädoyer für die Frauenfreundschaft!
Von mir gibt es eine Leseempfehlung!

[Laverne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inseperable is a story about a 40 year old named Christine and the relationships she'd had in the past years with her "best" friends. For her birthday, her sister and a few friends reunite many of her friends for a birthday get together. The story goes through each friend and what happened to distance them from the other. Christine is a career woman working for a publisher and writes columns for various women's magazines, but due to her recent divorce -- which took changed her life in ways she didn't expect -- she's down on friendship. But thank God for good friends who care; because Christine's friends have her back.

So together they birth the idea of a surprise party, one with a twist; all of the women who were ever important to Christine have been invited. The friends must keep it a secret from Christine.

This funny and relatable book about sisterhood reminds us that no matter what we go through with the love of friends we can get through even the most sensitive of situations.
Inseparable is a warm-hearted, funny book about life, relationships, friendship, and the value we place on our relationships and people. I enjoyed it reading this follow up to "Life after Forty". I will continue to follow this author as should you if you are looking for books about grown folk emotions and the value of people.

A complimentary copy was provided by Amazon Prime for the purpose of this review.
Missy
4 bookmarks
Readers Paradise Book Club

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this sequel to "Life After Forty," Christine is approaching her forty-fourth birthday. Her career is going well: she works for a publishing company and has several regular columns for magazines. She enjoys her life in Hamburg, with amiable friendships.

But in a conversation with one of these friends, Dorothea, she seems a bit jaded about friendships lasting.

From this discussion, Dorothea has an idea and enlists the help of Christine's sister and a few other friends to put together a surprise birthday party for Christine that will include friendships of Christine's from the distant past.

The quest is lengthy and described in detail; there are questionnaires to include with letters to the individuals.

From this point on, we are shown glimpses of some of the friends in their current lives, with occasional peeks into Christine's life, and her tedious relationship with Richard.

I liked the premise of the story, but as it continued, I thought it soon lost its luster. Or maybe something was lost in translation. At any rate, the story plodded along and I no longer connected with any of the characters. In fact, sometimes I got confused, as many of them had similar names. I felt like a passenger adrift in the sea, and just wanted to get to shore. The most I can give "Inseparable" is three stars.

[Kjirstin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman who's been badly betrayed by her best friend has given up on the idea of "best friends", and the women around her take it upon themselves to find all her friends from the past and bring them together for her birthday. On the way, all the women involved learn something about themselves and about the nature of friendship.

I'm torn about this book. On the one hand, the basic story was very interesting and had the potential to be quite good. On the other hand, the story badly needed the colloquial treatment of a breezy chick-lit style and was handicapped by what felt like a far-too-literal translation from the original German. This book needed an "idiom translation" so that the tone of the original was able to shine through.

Truthfully, I rather enjoyed the clunkiness of the translated text--to some extent it felt I was getting a sense of the cultural differences in the single woman experience, as well as the universals that don't change. But it was far from the effortless beach read that, I think, this book optimally should have been.

So I guess I'd say that I recommend this for the idea at its heart, and for the window into the German "career girl" experience, but I'll caution you to expect to have to work a little harder at reading this than you might at a typical chick lit novel.

[Kristin (Kritters Ramblings) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful sequel that lived up to the first because it took the story to another level. Christine's friends have helped her survive a separation and a divorce and now they are determined to have her reconnect with her girlfriends of the past. The book is the chronology of her friends finding her friends from the past and gathering them all to celebrate her birthday - it was a fun journey to go on with these characters.

Throughout this book I was thinking of the girlfriends in my life that have been there through different phrases of my life - the childhood days, the college years, the single in the city phase and now the girlfriend days. I just wish that I could pull all the girls that have been in my life into a room and just reconnect and revisit all the good ole times. Reading this over the holidays was perfect to help me get into the spirit of what the holiday season should be about - pulling together those who mean the most to you.

Ok now over the sappiness - this book was a great chick lit read that was centered around female friendships and how vital they are for our past, present and future. Each woman will enjoy this book for the appreciation we should have of the friends that surrounded us daily.

[ILoveBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christine is the main character and she is not doing so well in the beginning of the novel. She is starting to feel older, has recently divorced due to a cheating husband, and has lost her best friend. She doesn't quite know what to do about the whole debacle. Christine is slowly losing faith in close friendships, particularly of the female persuasion. Her friends know what they must do. They band together in an attempt to raise Christine's faith and happiness. The novel takes off from there.



Dora Heldt skillfully crafts a novel concerning female friendship from the ashes of female friendship. Confusing? Not really. Christine was betrayed by a woman she considered her oldest and dearest friend. However, her other friends show her that she shouldn't lose faith in friendship in general. They try to be there for her.



Christine as a character was nice to get to know. The reader will feel very connected to her at the end of the novel. The secondary characters, particularly Christine's other friends, are great. They round out the novel. The events are not very fast-paced, but the book does not call for quick events, but deliberate ones-which the author delivers. This book is recommended to adult readers.

[Dianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is set in Germany and that is about the most interesting thing about it. It is supposed to be about friendships, but what it really is about is women having affairs either with married men or while being married themselves, getting drunk, worrying about your age (since when is 44 old?)it is about how all of these women seem to think the grass is greener on the other side.

This is an ensemble piece and the characters are many and it is difficult to keep them all straight. The characters are not very well fleshed out and can be annoying to read about. They are whiny, selfish and I couldn't find a single one of them I could either relate to or want as my own friend. The story or at least what I assume the story is, is quit thin and not something that kept me challenged as a reader or even slightly engaged.

The most engaging part of this book are the columns that the main character, or at least what we thought was the main character, writes for several different magazines she works for.

Perhaps this just didn't translate very well and I'm just not 'getting' it, but I really didn't like this book and would be hesitant to read anything else by this author.

[Brina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christine hat sich nach ihrer Scheidung in Hamburg gut eingelebt.
Als ihre Arbeitskollegin die Hochzeit ihrer besten Freundin organisiert, bittet sie Christine, etwas über ihre beste Freundin zu erzählen.
Als Christine daraufhin flüchtet, versuchen ihre Freundinnen und Kolleginnen den Grund dafür herauszufinden.

Als diese herausfinden, wieso Christine Frauenfreundschaften gegenüber kritisch ist, schmieden sie den Plan, alle alten Freundinnen von Christine zu suchen und sie zu überraschen.

„Unzertrennlich“ ist der zweite Band, der sich mit dem Leben der Christine Schmidt befasst.
Dora Heldt überzeugt auch hier mit witzigen Texten, tollen Charakteren und Frauenthemen, die jede Frau schon einmal erlebt hat.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Affairs, broken hearts

After Ruth asks for ideas to make her best friend’s wedding special and then asks Christine to write a column on best friends, she discovers that Christine’s divorce came about because her husband was having an affair with her (Christine’s) best friend. She also discovers that growing up, Christine was never able to hold on to friendships for long as her family was always moving.

In order to do something special for Christine, Ruth and several of Christine’s co-workers/friends decide to plan a special birthday for her. The idea involves discovering who those long ago friends were and tracking them down, sending each a questionnaire asking how they met and other things about their friendship.

[Star · Rating 1 out of 5]

Christine is back after her adventures in Life After Forty in Inseparable. She’s getting along well – her job is going like gangbusters and she’s enjoying her quiet life in Hamburg. This time, Christine is questioning the stability of friendships through the test of time. Her close friends and family hatch a plan to surprise Christine for her 44th birthday and include friends from the past.

I didn’t feel any great connection with any of the characters and I don’t know if it was a cultural thing or an age difference thing. Inseparable seemed very repetitious and while I thought the premise was interesting; I just couldn’t make it work for me. Give it a try and see if you find a connection for yourself…

Series: Life after Forty (1), Inseparable (2)

[Tonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book! I didn't read the first one, so I hope that I didn't miss some important background. Although I am sure I did, I still enjoyed this quick and easy read!

I love books about friendships and I thought it really neat that her sister and friend would try and throw a surprise party for her! What could be better after finding out your husband and former BFF were sleeping together??

Fun journey to go on! Dora Heldt writes with such ease, made the journey enjoyable and laugh out loud for this reader!

Even Richard was enjoyable, still a jerk though!

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read 3 of the books about Christine and her life. At this immediate time in my own life, there is a definite parallel. I have really enjoyed all 3 and plan to read another soon.Dora Heldt

[Liz Thackray · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this book, I kept thinking I had read it before, but there was sufficient content that I could not recall to keep me reading. This may be because it is such light easy read or just that the detail of the story is not particularly memorable. So yes it is a pleasant undemanding read, not a book I would strongly recommend, but on a beach holiday or similar, harmless and enjoyable.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anstrengendes Buch...

[Jen Fabbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Translation is missing something, but interesting premise nonetheless.

[Gail Monds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. I liked the format and the characters. I will continue to read this series of books about "Christine".

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! I look forward to reading more of her books.

[Erin]

really liked it - great characters, unusual plot for chick lit

[Saskia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dafür bin ich dann noch etwas zu klein ;)

[GoldenGerbera · Rating 5 out of 5]

A2/B1 Sprachestufe ist schon gegung um das wunderschöne Geschichte über Freundinen zu genießen.