Helpful Score: 5
This is a great book about a group of five friends. The friend who was the glue that held them all together dies unexpectedly, and while the others try to untangle the messes of their lives, they reflect on what she meant to them and what she brought to their lives. Sounds soppy and introspective, but its not. The characters are lifelike, the situations realistic, and yes, everyone ends up with a hopeful, if not happy ending, but by that time, you are rooting for them.
Helpful Score: 3
A poignant and funny story of how the death of a friend draws 4 women, each with problems of her own, together. Each becomes stronger with the support of the others. Great read!!
Helpful Score: 2
I didn't realized this was one of Carr's earlier books. This is very different from her Virgin River series. It isn't really romance. It is more about four wrtiers who are picking up the pieces of their lives after the death of a friend, who was the glue to their group.
What amazes me about this book is that the characters are not perfect. They do selfish things, think mean thoughts, and are frustrating. Yet, I couldn't put it down. There were parts that are very difficult to read like Beth's denial with her abusive husband or Ceola's manipulative ways. At the end, these four ladies had to find a way to cope with their loss, not just of their friend but their own lives. This story is more about growth than anything else.
I enjoyed the characters' stories even though I can't say I liked them. It was a good read and I shed a few tears. It's not a feel good novel but the end was satisfying.
What amazes me about this book is that the characters are not perfect. They do selfish things, think mean thoughts, and are frustrating. Yet, I couldn't put it down. There were parts that are very difficult to read like Beth's denial with her abusive husband or Ceola's manipulative ways. At the end, these four ladies had to find a way to cope with their loss, not just of their friend but their own lives. This story is more about growth than anything else.
I enjoyed the characters' stories even though I can't say I liked them. It was a good read and I shed a few tears. It's not a feel good novel but the end was satisfying.
Helpful Score: 2
This was a wonderful story of true friendship! Did not want it to end!
Helpful Score: 2
How wonderful a story I can't begin to tell you. Friends forever and after. Such a storyline, such charactors, such a great read!
Helpful Score: 2
I like Carr's writing, but I liked her other books better than this one. It had too many characters to keep track of throughout the novel, and a couple of plot lines also appeared in Blue Skies (a cheating airline-pilot husband, domestic violence), lessening their impact here. Mostly I am sorry that I have read all of Carr's novels that I have gotten my hands on, and now I have none to look forward to.
If you are coming to this book via Carr's Virgin River series, you may be taken aback. Although Virgin River is not a happy-go-lucky series where nothing bad ever happens, it is ultimately optimistic and most characters behave decently or at least understandably. The House on Olive Street, written before Carr got her name with the VR series, is darker, suggesting a world where bad things happen all the time for no reason - which you may find depressing or realistic depending on your attitude toward fiction. The four main characters are well-written, and their friendships are intriguing. This was not a fun relaxing read, although I did find it challenging in a good way, which is why I am not rating it even lower. But overall it was not what I was expecting from Carr, and I wouldn't necessarily seek out her earlier work if the rest of it is like this. Ultimately, it felt too much like manufactured drama, much like one of those bad Lifetime movies where something tragic always befalls our plucky heroine.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a feel good book about discovering yourself while discovering friendship.
Good story about friends...Love Robyn's writings.
I enjoyed this story more than I thought I would. The characters are completely and compellingly drawn, and the plot is entertaining and interesting. Worth a read! This is my first novel by Robyn Carr, and I now look forward to reading more from her.
As with all of Robyn Carr's books, I loved it, but it was the first one,that I can remember, that I hated to end.
Great Book!
Great Book!
just didn't like it
Absolutely incredible story! I wasn't expecting such a powerful and insightful story, and certainly didn't expect to find myself setting the book aside to see how a specific character's lesson in life affected my way of thinking!
It a book that everyone should read; if nothing else, it will introduce you to a truly great author. But I suspect it will stay with you, and actually influence the way you look at life, death, friends, marriage and family forever.
It a book that everyone should read; if nothing else, it will introduce you to a truly great author. But I suspect it will stay with you, and actually influence the way you look at life, death, friends, marriage and family forever.
Poked along at first ... flowed a lot better as I got farther into the book. Nice stories of casual friends building deeper relationships through a shared experience. I really liked the ending with the surprise arrival from the past.
Elly, Sable, Barbara Ann and Beth. They have been drawn together by the sudden death of their friend Gabby - and the favor she has asked of them. For these four women, whose lives have become unhappy works of fiction, a summer spent sorting through Gabby's personal papers offers the perfect challenge-and the perfect escape.
I am sorry to say I didn't enjoy this book. I very much enjoyed her Summer In Sonoma!!I went out and purchased this soon after..it was hard to get into and just seemed to run on..too much detail with no interesting events. Hope someone else will enjoy this from Robyn Carr, this is the only one of her books to fail me.
Robyn Carr is a wonderful author who knows family and women. This book is a wonderful a must read!! The women are ones you know in your own life just diffrent names. The problems and lives are one you have lived or seen through a friend. A Real story about real life.
Put it on your wishlist you will have to wait for this one.
Put it on your wishlist you will have to wait for this one.
There's a pretty long-standing trope in women's fiction wherein four or five long-time female friends get together at some critical point in the life of one or more of them, and -- usually with the help of a great deal of wine -- solve each other's problems so that everyone lives happily ever after.
Carr is undeniably dusting off this reliable formula in "The House on Olive Street", but she handles the story with such panache that it pops and bubbles and turns left almost every time the reader is expecting it to turn right.
Five women, writers all, have had a long-standing friendship that is shaken when one of them dies unexpectedly, charging the eldest member of the group to handle her literary affairs and sort out her personal effects. What starts out as a sad obligation grows into a combination scavenger hunt to reconstruct an unfinished autobiographical novel and a "crazy women's summer camp" as circumstances push one group member after the next into taking up residence in the house on Olive Street.
Things look like they might get terribly predictable and just a wee bit sappy about three-quarters of the way through the book, but Carr still has a few plot twists up her sleeve and manages to create a satisfying ending without getting mawkish about it.
Carr is undeniably dusting off this reliable formula in "The House on Olive Street", but she handles the story with such panache that it pops and bubbles and turns left almost every time the reader is expecting it to turn right.
Five women, writers all, have had a long-standing friendship that is shaken when one of them dies unexpectedly, charging the eldest member of the group to handle her literary affairs and sort out her personal effects. What starts out as a sad obligation grows into a combination scavenger hunt to reconstruct an unfinished autobiographical novel and a "crazy women's summer camp" as circumstances push one group member after the next into taking up residence in the house on Olive Street.
Things look like they might get terribly predictable and just a wee bit sappy about three-quarters of the way through the book, but Carr still has a few plot twists up her sleeve and manages to create a satisfying ending without getting mawkish about it.
From Publishers Weekly
When novelist Gabby Marshall dies, she leaves a letter asking her four closest friends, all writers, to organize her literary remains. In the process, they take refuge from their own lives in Gabby's cozy home in Sacramento, Calif. Unsentimental spinster Elly fears her highbrow friends won't accept her suitor, Ben, a loving but unsophisticated farmer. Bestselling Sable escapes the sudden exposure of her tarnished past; Beth is leaving an abusive husband; Barbara Ann is running away from a home full of slovenly men. Introductory chapters are slow, but once the protagonists move into their "halfway house for insane women" the book comes to life. The women's feisty, bluntly honest exchanges ring with credibility and charm; the minor characters that eddy around themABarbara Ann's lovably clueless husband; Ceola, the late Gabby's pistol-toting momAare drawn with deftness and affection. Though conventional in outline, Carr (Mind Tryst) offers a well-written, warm-hearted story and a genuinely fun read.
When novelist Gabby Marshall dies, she leaves a letter asking her four closest friends, all writers, to organize her literary remains. In the process, they take refuge from their own lives in Gabby's cozy home in Sacramento, Calif. Unsentimental spinster Elly fears her highbrow friends won't accept her suitor, Ben, a loving but unsophisticated farmer. Bestselling Sable escapes the sudden exposure of her tarnished past; Beth is leaving an abusive husband; Barbara Ann is running away from a home full of slovenly men. Introductory chapters are slow, but once the protagonists move into their "halfway house for insane women" the book comes to life. The women's feisty, bluntly honest exchanges ring with credibility and charm; the minor characters that eddy around themABarbara Ann's lovably clueless husband; Ceola, the late Gabby's pistol-toting momAare drawn with deftness and affection. Though conventional in outline, Carr (Mind Tryst) offers a well-written, warm-hearted story and a genuinely fun read.
Fron the first word "Elly" to the last word "that" it sucks you in and won't let you go until you get to "that"
Cover says "A warm wonderful book about women's friendships, love and family."
