Reviews

Good Lord. I could not bring myself to finish the book in its entirety; after making it halfway through, I started skimming until I reached the end. The characters are awful. The protagonist has no spine, which any normal human being would use to drive away her awful, insufferable birth mother. And what is the point of making the birth mother such a caricature? Is the reader supposed to feel sympathy for April, for having to deal with this harpy? Instead, I felt extreme frustration and disgust for April's inability to cut this woman out of her life.

fireflyhollow's review against another edition

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4.0

I was on the fence debating whether I wanted to rate this book 3 or 4 stars. I really look forward to the day, as I am sure many of you do as well, when we can rate books with half stars. I ended up going with 4 because the story was better than just okay to me. Actually, a large portion of it was really interesting and kept me wanting to know how everything was going to turn out. I listened to the audio version and unfortunately felt that the story was about two hours too long. I was looking for an quick, easy read, and I got just that.

squintyfarmer's review against another edition

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book and read it in pretty much one sitting. I was really disappointed with the film--I thought the plot changes really took away a lot of what made the story and the characters great. The characters are really well-written--even Bernice, who seems at first like she will just be annoying but ends up with an endearing vulnerability.

novelesque_life's review

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3.0

3 STARS

"Meet April Epner, the serious, scholarly, adopted daughter of two equally staid parents. They die, but April finds that she's far from orphaned when her birth mother, Bernice Graverman, comes to claim April's heart and improve her wardrobe and love life, too. April is a Latin teacher, given to wearing flannel jumpers. Bernice is hostess of a third-rate daytime talk show and wears designer labels and toad-sized earrings. She descends upon April's quiet life with the tact of a size-six locust, and the delightful and surprising results of this unlikely reunion will keep you turning pages long after bedtime." (From Amazon)

I saw this movie on tv and of course once I know it was based on a book I have to read it! I enjoyed this humour yet warm novel.

katiethepenguin's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

spahade's review against another edition

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4.0

I liked it, I am interested to see the movie. Helen Hunt tried to get a movie made for 10 years after reading this book. Bette Middler is great casting.

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