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texmom22's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ameliatmoss's review against another edition
1.0
If you are even remotely interested in reading this book, I suggest that instead you read the BETTER version of this book entitled "The Overdue Life of Amy Byler" by Kelly Harms.
kberry_co's review
4.0
Actual rating: 3.5
While the story line was a bit run-of-the-mill, I found this novel to be a quick, easy and overall enjoyable read.
While the story line was a bit run-of-the-mill, I found this novel to be a quick, easy and overall enjoyable read.
cemoses's review against another edition
4.0
This book is about a devoted wife whose husband leaves her when she is 53. An enjoyable read in the quarentine.
novelvisits's review
4.0
My Thoughts: Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties is the story of a 50-something woman trying to rebuild her life after her husband suddenly tells her there’s someone else. While that in itself is awful, scary, devastating, it’s sadly not unusual. Many of us, including myself, have been through similar experiences and I suspect readers’ reactions to Woman Last Seen in her Thirties will vary widely based on their own experiences.
I found myself both sympathetic to Maggie and incredibly frustrated by her. Pagán captured the trauma of a long marriage ending suddenly in a very real way. Maggie was stunned, numbed. She walked around in a fog having no idea where her life would go. That felt real. Even her obsessive desire to figure out what went wrong and who the “other woman” was seemed real, but her longing to get her husband back under any circumstances initially turned my sympathies away from Maggie. It was hard for me not to watch Maggie through the lens of my own experiences. We had so much in common. Like her I took a solo trip to Italy shortly after my divorce and had great adventures there on my own. When Maggie acted differently then I would have, it was easy for me to grow frustrated with her, until finally I stopped judging her and recognized that everyone’s experiences are their own.
In the end, I liked Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties quite a lot. I do think that Pagán overplayed a few of her story’s elements and gave Maggie a fairly lucky (i.e. unlikely) set of breaks, but overall this was a sweet story of a woman learning to take back her own power and isn’t that what we want for all women?
Narration: I thought the audiobook edition of Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties was fine. I wouldn’t rave about Amy McFadden’s narration, but there was nothing awful about it either. Some of the dialogue felt a little off, especially when voicing the male characters. Maggie’s adult son always sounded like a stoned surfer dude to me!
Originally at: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-clearing-the-shelves-volume-2/
I found myself both sympathetic to Maggie and incredibly frustrated by her. Pagán captured the trauma of a long marriage ending suddenly in a very real way. Maggie was stunned, numbed. She walked around in a fog having no idea where her life would go. That felt real. Even her obsessive desire to figure out what went wrong and who the “other woman” was seemed real, but her longing to get her husband back under any circumstances initially turned my sympathies away from Maggie. It was hard for me not to watch Maggie through the lens of my own experiences. We had so much in common. Like her I took a solo trip to Italy shortly after my divorce and had great adventures there on my own. When Maggie acted differently then I would have, it was easy for me to grow frustrated with her, until finally I stopped judging her and recognized that everyone’s experiences are their own.
In the end, I liked Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties quite a lot. I do think that Pagán overplayed a few of her story’s elements and gave Maggie a fairly lucky (i.e. unlikely) set of breaks, but overall this was a sweet story of a woman learning to take back her own power and isn’t that what we want for all women?
Narration: I thought the audiobook edition of Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties was fine. I wouldn’t rave about Amy McFadden’s narration, but there was nothing awful about it either. Some of the dialogue felt a little off, especially when voicing the male characters. Maggie’s adult son always sounded like a stoned surfer dude to me!
Originally at: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-clearing-the-shelves-volume-2/
aly_saurusrex's review
4.0
This one was so tough for me to get into. So so tough. I couldn't stand Maggie while she was trying everything to get her husband back. Could. Not. Stand. Her. So much that it took me like 5 tries to even finish this book, but in the end, I am glad I did. Maggie grew into her own person. Maggie learned that she is an individual, not just someone's wife or mother or daughter in law. And for that growth alone, I am giving this book four stars. I just discovered Camille Pagán last week through Prime First Reads and Kindle Unlimited with Audible narration. And then promptly listened to three of her five books. I have fallen in love and am not sure what I will do when I am done...
tea_tales_tomes's review
3.0
A perfectly forgettable story. There wasn't anything wrong about it, it was just kind bland and kinda meh. I liked that the protanonist was older than your typical female lead (she's 53 when the book starts) and that the story was not really run of the mill. There were moments of brilliance in the writing but those were so few and far between that it caught me by surprise. I would like to read more from this author because I feel like she is going to get better and better but this book just didn't hit all the marks. Also, the narrator was quite bad. All the female characters had a really whiny tilt to their voices and all the males sounded like teenage boys ridden with angst. The narrator did a surprisingly excellent and spot on Italian male voice but that was probably for 5 minutes of the entire book and did not redeem that other 7 hours or so or screechy female.
bellebookblog's review against another edition
5.0
This was my first book of Ms. Pagan’s but certainly not my last. I fell in love with Maggie, Adam, Zoe, Jack and Gerta from the beginning. When Adam said he wanted a divorce because he fell in love with someone else by the name of Jillian Smith. I was angry for Maggie and her kids and wanted to kick Adam’s butt. When Adam was invited over for a last family Thanksgiving, it broke my heart because I was sad for everyone involved but most of all for Maggie, She fell in love with Adam and expected him to uphold their vows.
When he revealed that he had an affair with Jillian Smith, I wanted Maggie to kill him. She got him back when the travel agent called and said that their trip to Rome was coming up. I love the fact that Maggie went and made a friend named Jean, an artist spending a month in a Rome then onto Florence. I literally laughed out loud when Maggie and Benito, the tour guide went out on a date then went back to his apartment. On Maggie’s last day in Rome, Jean offered her the option to stay in her home in Ann Arbor just to get some distance from the situation with Adam.
This book made me laugh, cry, and get angry all at once. I highly recommend this book
When he revealed that he had an affair with Jillian Smith, I wanted Maggie to kill him. She got him back when the travel agent called and said that their trip to Rome was coming up. I love the fact that Maggie went and made a friend named Jean, an artist spending a month in a Rome then onto Florence. I literally laughed out loud when Maggie and Benito, the tour guide went out on a date then went back to his apartment. On Maggie’s last day in Rome, Jean offered her the option to stay in her home in Ann Arbor just to get some distance from the situation with Adam.
This book made me laugh, cry, and get angry all at once. I highly recommend this book