Til the Real Thing Comes Along

by Iris Rainer Dart

Believing that happiness is beyond her reach after a botched relationship, television comedy writer and widow R. J. Misner meets the handsome David and wonders if they can overcome their differences in age and religion. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Romance

401 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Iris Rainer Dart is the author of eight novels, including the much-beloved New York Times bestseller Beaches. The mother of two children, she lives in California with her husband.

Reviews

[Lydia]

I had read this book many times in the past and I went looking through my bookshelves for it to read again. Surprised to say I cannot find it and now I really want to read it again. So I'll settle for a review to see how much I can remember.
RJ Misner is a wise-cracking writer left alone to raise a young son after the death of her beloved husband. She seems that she is settling for a lonely life when she meets David Malcom, the only child of a legendary Hollywood star and a gruff William Randolph Hearst-like tycoon father. RJ can't believe that this golden boy would want an older, Jewish, walls-built-high-around-her-heart dame and David can't believe that RJ can't see how good they would be together. What follows are the ups and downs of two people who couldn't have been raised more different who decide that life was what was happening "til the real thing came along". Now I have to find me another copy....

[Vicki]

Actually, this is a pretty good story, and I loved many of the characters. However, I absolutely hated the way it was (dis-)organized. Also, the use of different names for the same characters without prior explanation seems to be irritating one's readers for no good reason.

[HannahReads]

An oldie but goodie! I’ve started to revisit some books I read years ago and this one has stood the test of time!

[Virginia]

I had picked up The Stork Club on a pure whim while at the library and found myself overall enjoying it. It's not my usual sort of read but I was in the mood for something different and found it. So next trip I searched out this author and picked up this one. I really liked the back and forth of times and characters, the great development of the characters and 'secondary-characters' and how they all contributed to the current situation. Quite sad at moments and laugh out loud funny the next. Looks like I stumbled into another author whose work I enjoy. She
breathed life into all these people for me and I found myself caring what happened to each of them. a very satifying read.

[Meryan]

The only thing I didn't like about this book was how it kept back and forth between past and present. Altogether it was a very enjoyable read. A Jewish girl who was raised in a poor family that grows up to be a comedy writer, has a young son to raise by herself after her husband is murdered. A man that is younger than she is and was raised very differently. His mother was a actress and his father owns the largest paper company in the world. They come from very different backgrounds but meet and fall for each other against all odds, but they will have to overcome a lot if they want to be together.

[Derla]

I changed my mind about this book. I had put it aside unfinished, but decided to read one more chapter, and I was hooked. I did finish the book and was surprised at the ending.

[Pat]

It was an interesting book. I liked the excerpts from the past about R.J. and David to see how each had arrived at who she or he was by the time they met.

[Cws]

F Dar