Maine in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 06, 2012 ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) rated it did not like it

Shelves: killeen-library-paper, women, 2012

I felt like I read a different book/story than the one the jacket made me believe I was going to get. I didn't like many of the characters AT ALL, I don't even understand how these people got together every year at the cottage when they seemingly hated one another for so long. I don't know..too much to get into and I'm a very lazy reviewer, but while I don't feel like every character I come to know should be happy all the time, I can't stand reading about the most miserable people on the planet ...more

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May 23, 2015 Book Concierge rated it did not like it

Shelves: family, audio, library, concierge

Book on CD narrated by Ann Marie Lee

Three generations of Kelleher women descend on the family’s beach-front property one summer. The four women around whom the story revolves have little in common except that they are all part of this dysfunctional family. Their relationships are as rocky as the coast of Maine.

I finished this only because it is a book-club selection. Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Not a single one of them is anyone I would want to know – even ...more

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May 06, 2012 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: womens-fiction, summer-2012

MAINE had been recommended to me by a trusted clerk at my local Barnes and Noble. Marnie usually picks great reads, and the blurb on the back interested me: three generations of the Kelleher family gather to the family’s Maine beach house for the last time with secrets in tow.

“For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. As three generations of women arrive at the family's beach house, each brings her MAINE had been recommended to me by a trusted clerk at my local Barnes and Noble. Marnie usually picks great reads, and the blurb on the back interested me: three generations of the Kelleher family gather to the family’s Maine beach house for the last time with secrets in tow.

“For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. As three generations of women arrive at the family's beach house, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago. “

MAINE is told by each of the four women. Their stories are told in flashbacks and don’t even get to the beach house until midway through the novel. And each character is unlikable, though bad tempered Alice is the most interesting of them. Ann Marie just grated on my nerves, while Maggie was just plain silly. Recovering alcoholic Kathleen was a pure witch. Once they all gather together, the constant passive aggressive sniping went on and on until finally the climatical event is revealed. From there the novel runs out of steam, at least for me it did. There is really no satisfying ending, and I wondered if J. Courtney Sullivan was as bored with MAINE as I was.

There are no moments of humor to relieve the bitterness and sadness of these characters as there are usually in novels about a dysfunctional family. I didn’t expect a happy ending, but I didn’t expect to feel cheated at the end of MAINE either. After the time I spent with these characters, I wanted to throw the book across the room and shout “Is this all there is?” If you are expecting a good summer read, MAINE may not be that book.
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Jan 05, 2013 Connie N. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: chick-lit, contemporary, family

I'm surprising myself by rating this 5 stars, but my feeling after reading this book is very high. There was an overall sense of peacefulness at the end despite the fact that several times throughout I was extremely annoyed by how unnecessarily obnoxious the characters were to each other. There was often a sense of snippiness and unhappiness among the family members, but it seemed as though the story provided an underlying feeling of love and togetherness. I particularly liked the format of the ...more

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Nov 21, 2014 Joanne rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed getting into the heads of these four very different women with the shifting first-person perspectives.

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Jan 29, 2013 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: courtney-sullivan

It's a story about four, strong-willed, female, Irish Kelleher women who love their drink and family (but not all the time!)

Alice, the matriarch of the family carries tremendous guilt over the death of her sister (she blames herself) and her treatment to her loving husband. Back in her day women could only be housewives and mothers. Alice's dream was to be an artist (she had sold one painting in her teens). But she married (penance regarding her sister) and because they are Catholic, had 3 chil ...more

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