Firefly Lane (Firefly Lane, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Dec 17, 2011 Linda C rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2011

I'm very much on the fence about this book. I liked it, but I think I liked it for that wrong reasons. I liked it because I felt like I was reading about my life, up until age 22 when I left Washington state. The characters and I are close to the same age, grew up in the same area, went to the same school, and yes, were in sororities. So I loved the trip down memory lane.

However, I think that was also a major flaw in the book. If it wasn't a trip down YOUR memory lane, i.e. right age bracket, ri I'm very much on the fence about this book. I liked it, but I think I liked it for that wrong reasons. I liked it because I felt like I was reading about my life, up until age 22 when I left Washington state. The characters and I are close to the same age, grew up in the same area, went to the same school, and yes, were in sororities. So I loved the trip down memory lane.

However, I think that was also a major flaw in the book. If it wasn't a trip down YOUR memory lane, i.e. right age bracket, right geographic area of the country, I think it would have been VERY distracting to have so many pop culture references and Northwest Washington references that weren't explained very well. Yes, I KNOW who Jean Enerson is (she was a Seattle news anchor in the '70s and she was/is a real person), but not many other readers would know that.

(She also got a few things wrong, which really grated on me. If you're going to recreate a time period so completely, then you need to be 100% accurate. Come on Kristin-- you know that Starbucks wasn't "a trendy coffee house" in 1982. It was a shop selling coffee beans and coffee equipment. You blew that big time.)

OK, now that my rant is over-- the characters were cliches. I tried to like Tully (on her website, Kristin said that Tully was one of her favorite characters), but she is a perfect example of a frenemy. The worst part is, I think that Kristin Hannah is a very skillful writer and has the ability to be a great writer. She perfectly captured (well, almost, putting Starbucks aside) a time and place which is now, frankly, in the category of historical fiction. Does that make me feel old? Uh, yeah...

So when she did so many things right, why did the book feel unright? Not wrong, just not right. She needs to spend more time on her characters, make them do something different, be something different-- make Tully plain, make Kate be the bitch etc. Shake things up a bit. She has the potential to be great, but with this chick lit stuff, I'm not feeling it. Which disappoints me a lot. ...more

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Jun 26, 2017 Nancy Brady rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Best friends forever (BFF), Kate and Tully are there for each other since one specific night back in 1974. This story of this relationship lasts over three decades, and their friendship exists despite time and distance, through thick and thin, despite boyfriends and husbands. Yet, one event severs the friendship nearly forever.

Kate is the introvert, preferring to read; Tully is the extrovert, trying to prove to herself that she is lovable, and they meet somewhere in the middle, knowing each othe ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 mussolet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: language-english, 2021-sorted, 2024-shelf-challenge

Review can also be found at 238 books in 238 days.
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This is the third (or fourth) book by Kristin Hannah that I've read, and it is by far the longest. And - to get the bad things out of the way - it didn't need to be that long. It's meandering quite a bit, and even though I love Kristin Hannah's writing, I had to deduct points for that.

Nevertheless, it is still a good book (as usual), and one that will make you cry (as usual). It's also set in Washington (you know what) and it tells the story ...more

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