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Trespassing Hearts
Left alone and pregnant on the homefront by her Gentile husband, Jewish woman Betsey Bernstein is determined to raise her baby in the Jewish faith, but she meets stiff resistance from her unstable, socialite, non-Jewish mother-in-law. (General Fiction).
464 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
About the author
Julie Ellis
160 books14 followersLibrarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
From the inside cover of the Kappa Books edition of Eden:
Julie Ellis was born in Columbus, Georgia. She moved to New York at age 16 with her parents, after her high school graduation. Julie studied drama, and was part of the mid-'50s Off-Broadway scene as actress/playwright/co-producer. Seven of her plays were produced Off-Broadway and presented on the summer hotel/bungalow colony circuits. She wrote 76 sides of children's records (hitting BILLBOARD'S Bestseller List). Her first paperback novel was published in 1960 and between 1960 and 1974 she wrote 143 contemporary, gothic, romantic suspense novels and 3 non-fiction titles that were published by major paperback houses.
Julie has written one hardcover/softcover bestseller per year (a number of early paperback originals now being re-published in hardcover in the United Kingdom). Ellis is published in thirteen countries. A favorite among library readers across the country, Julie regularly appears on LIBRARY JOURNAL'S "Pre-publication Bestseller Lists." In 1993 she made the United Kingdom's Registrar of Public Lending Rights List of the most-read authors in the United Kingdom Library System (minimum of 300,000 loans per author).
A single mother since 1972 (first separated, then widowed), Julie considers her major productions her daughter Susan and her son Richard. Julie is a passionate environmentalist whose convictions appear regularly in her novels (the devastation of our Northwest forests in LOYALTIES, the unnecessary deaths caused by the tobacco industry in LASTING TREASURES, gun control in COMMITMENT). Julie is a vegetarian with occasional lapses due to social circumstances. She alternates between her Manhattan apartment and beach house in Montauk.
From the inside cover of the Kappa Books edition of Eden:
Julie Ellis was born in Columbus, Georgia. She moved to New York at age 16 with her parents, after her high school graduation. Julie studied drama, and was part of the mid-'50s Off-Broadway scene as actress/playwright/co-producer. Seven of her plays were produced Off-Broadway and presented on the summer hotel/bungalow colony circuits. She wrote 76 sides of children's records (hitting BILLBOARD'S Bestseller List). Her first paperback novel was published in 1960 and between 1960 and 1974 she wrote 143 contemporary, gothic, romantic suspense novels and 3 non-fiction titles that were published by major paperback houses.
Julie has written one hardcover/softcover bestseller per year (a number of early paperback originals now being re-published in hardcover in the United Kingdom). Ellis is published in thirteen countries. A favorite among library readers across the country, Julie regularly appears on LIBRARY JOURNAL'S "Pre-publication Bestseller Lists." In 1993 she made the United Kingdom's Registrar of Public Lending Rights List of the most-read authors in the United Kingdom Library System (minimum of 300,000 loans per author).
A single mother since 1972 (first separated, then widowed), Julie considers her major productions her daughter Susan and her son Richard. Julie is a passionate environmentalist whose convictions appear regularly in her novels (the devastation of our Northwest forests in LOYALTIES, the unnecessary deaths caused by the tobacco industry in LASTING TREASURES, gun control in COMMITMENT). Julie is a vegetarian with occasional lapses due to social circumstances. She alternates between her Manhattan apartment and beach house in Montauk.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 20, 2020
Timp pentru a iubi este o poveste romantică, cliseica, ce tratează iubirea dintre Betsy si Paul, iubire ce debutează la începutul celui de-al doilea război mondial.
Cartea nu este cine stie ce. Mi s-a parut al naibi de previzibilă și din această cauză lectura mi s-a părut plictisitoare. Are și multe pagini... și pe cuvant că în cartea asta nu se întâmplă mai nimic. Adică, a încercat autoarea să imbarlige lucrurile, să mențină atenția cititorului, însă cu mine nu prea a funcționat. Am intuit finalul încă de când cei doi băieți au plecat pe front. ;))) a fost atât de evident...
Personajele, sa zicem ca au identitate, deși un pic cam plate pentru gustul meu. Singura care iese in evidenta e Alice... mamă si ce m-a enervat Alice pentru ca sub masca ei de om sensibil, zace o adevărată scorpie, care nu se gândeste decât la persoana sa.
Betsy mi s-a parut cam prostuta. :)) Mi-a plăcut in schimb, prietenia dintre Betsy si Emily, Doug și Paul.
Marc si Eric sunt pomeniți de cel putin un milion de ori în carte, dar au numai câteva replici, zici ca sunt personaje fantomă.
Mi-a plăcut fraza de încheiere " Fiecare lucru are timpul lui".
În fine. 3 stele.
Cartea nu este cine stie ce. Mi s-a parut al naibi de previzibilă și din această cauză lectura mi s-a părut plictisitoare. Are și multe pagini... și pe cuvant că în cartea asta nu se întâmplă mai nimic. Adică, a încercat autoarea să imbarlige lucrurile, să mențină atenția cititorului, însă cu mine nu prea a funcționat. Am intuit finalul încă de când cei doi băieți au plecat pe front. ;))) a fost atât de evident...
Personajele, sa zicem ca au identitate, deși un pic cam plate pentru gustul meu. Singura care iese in evidenta e Alice... mamă si ce m-a enervat Alice pentru ca sub masca ei de om sensibil, zace o adevărată scorpie, care nu se gândeste decât la persoana sa.
Betsy mi s-a parut cam prostuta. :)) Mi-a plăcut in schimb, prietenia dintre Betsy si Emily, Doug și Paul.
Marc si Eric sunt pomeniți de cel putin un milion de ori în carte, dar au numai câteva replici, zici ca sunt personaje fantomă.
Mi-a plăcut fraza de încheiere " Fiecare lucru are timpul lui".
În fine. 3 stele.
August 24, 2018
This book was the mediocre, three-star read that I anticipated. (I probably have a handful of four-stars that also fit this description, but retrospect is retrospect. :P) It's a historical romance about Betsy Bernstein, an ambitious New York Jew and interior designer who falls for a wealthy soldier during WWII and has to deal with his unstable, antisemitic mother.
The writing is workmanlike and the takeaway messages are drummed into the reader's skull. You also don't get too far into this book before realizing that Ellis's favorite adjective is probably "ebulliently." :P
Some positives--the mother-in-law didn't come off as the wicked witch in the west, though she was a heavily infantalized character. Obviously not meant to be anything much beyond a gnat-like annoyance. A fair amount of the drama actually focused on Besty making a name for herself in the interior design world. Perhaps she was a *tad* too good at it (and also, such a beauty, so important,) but Ellis really cared about the specifics of struggling to run a business or balance work and home life. So I liked it. I also liked all of the details about America's involvement in the war, though it often read like reportage that was separate from the story.
Betsy's son grew up too fast, as per the needs of the plot. One specific walk-on character was ridiculously happy during a sad event--obviously Ellis trying to throw us off the scent. Most annoyingly we have this scene, with self-righteous generalizations that's even more annoying in today's day and age of ignoring or downplaying verifiable facts:
"I read about the murder. Sir Harry Oakes was a partner at that Nazi bank--the Continental in Mexico."
"Where did you read that?" Georgette flared.
"Aerican newspapers and magazines," Betsy told her sweetly. "It's a well-known fact." Her eyes defied contradiction.
I know you're right, Betsy, but for pete's sake, back up your sources! Being lazy about the issues always reads like FAKE NEWS!, and we need to get back to having intelligent conversations, dangit. :P
I do feel a little bad for judging this novel harshly on some points. I know some people, due to mental illness or other reasons, who build up drama with others. I was also thinking a lot, as the mother-in-law tried to secretly baptize Betsy's child, about real life history of forced conversions. And even pointing out that, for all Betsy wanted to raise her son Jewish she didn't actually live a very religious lifestyle, flies in the face of plenty of people (myself included) feeling deeply Jewish without being deeply religious. (I could ramble on defensively about other ways that I assert my identity, but--yeah, stopping now. :P) But at the end of the day, it's a pretty shallow novel. But very fast-paced and fun.
The writing is workmanlike and the takeaway messages are drummed into the reader's skull. You also don't get too far into this book before realizing that Ellis's favorite adjective is probably "ebulliently." :P
Some positives--the mother-in-law didn't come off as the wicked witch in the west, though she was a heavily infantalized character. Obviously not meant to be anything much beyond a gnat-like annoyance. A fair amount of the drama actually focused on Besty making a name for herself in the interior design world. Perhaps she was a *tad* too good at it (and also, such a beauty, so important,) but Ellis really cared about the specifics of struggling to run a business or balance work and home life. So I liked it. I also liked all of the details about America's involvement in the war, though it often read like reportage that was separate from the story.
Betsy's son grew up too fast, as per the needs of the plot. One specific walk-on character was ridiculously happy during a sad event--obviously Ellis trying to throw us off the scent. Most annoyingly we have this scene, with self-righteous generalizations that's even more annoying in today's day and age of ignoring or downplaying verifiable facts:
"I read about the murder. Sir Harry Oakes was a partner at that Nazi bank--the Continental in Mexico."
"Where did you read that?" Georgette flared.
"Aerican newspapers and magazines," Betsy told her sweetly. "It's a well-known fact." Her eyes defied contradiction.
I know you're right, Betsy, but for pete's sake, back up your sources! Being lazy about the issues always reads like FAKE NEWS!, and we need to get back to having intelligent conversations, dangit. :P
I do feel a little bad for judging this novel harshly on some points. I know some people, due to mental illness or other reasons, who build up drama with others. I was also thinking a lot, as the mother-in-law tried to secretly baptize Betsy's child, about real life history of forced conversions. And even pointing out that, for all Betsy wanted to raise her son Jewish she didn't actually live a very religious lifestyle, flies in the face of plenty of people (myself included) feeling deeply Jewish without being deeply religious. (I could ramble on defensively about other ways that I assert my identity, but--yeah, stopping now. :P) But at the end of the day, it's a pretty shallow novel. But very fast-paced and fun.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews