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kmmi_booklover's review against another edition
3.0
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I have mixed feeling about this one. I would have never picked this book up myself, because I have read at least two other with a very similar story line this year ~ wealthy family, husband dies suddenly, wife left penniless. I do like the author's writing style and character development. I enjoyed reading parts of the book. I kept hoping the book would develop into something unique, but it didn't. I'm curious enough to look up other books by this author to see if they have a better story line.
nkrajnovich's review against another edition
3.0
An ok read, a little slow moving at times. I kept waiting for a big crescendo in the story, but not really until the last 30 pages did it happen. It was a lot to dredge through to get to that point. Im not a parent or a widow, so I fully admit that I may not be the target audience for this book. I think it would have definite appeal to those 2 categories.
mholles's review against another edition
3.0
Easily reccomendale to those who like women's fiction. Georgia Waltz's husband dies unexpectedly leaving their finances in shambles. Georgia and her grown daughters handle the situation as gracefully as they can. Each doing what she has to to improve their situation. Through an unexpected pregnancy, new boyfriends, and discovering Ben' mistress, the three women become closer.
angmul's review against another edition
2.0
This book was very unbelievable. The characters were false, and the plot was unrealistic. It seemed to me that the way the character dealt with her husband's death was not believable. If your husband of 29 years dies and leaves you penniless, you would feel so angry, and the character does not seem to feel it so much. I also didn't believe the main character would not know that her husband burned through all their assets, including her own family's inherited property! The book was dumb!
Also, the plot is weak. There is one scene where a man asks her out on a date, only 4 months after her husband dies. This character was written to be a good guy, but I imagine any decent man would give her space and wait.
Also, the plot is weak. There is one scene where a man asks her out on a date, only 4 months after her husband dies. This character was written to be a good guy, but I imagine any decent man would give her space and wait.
kimmerp's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting resolution, heartfelt story but lacked drving storytelling. Would recommend to new widows.
jgallagher1983's review against another edition
4.0
I received a free copy of this book through a GoodReads giveaway.
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It didn't seem that enticing from the summary. However, I really liked it! Georgia made an amazing narrator and her depictions of her daughters were great. The family dynamics were believable and the story line was heart breaking. How must it feel to go through life and one day have it all be a lie. No matter what I thought was going to happen, I wasn't expecting the truth. I enjoyed the ending and felt that Ms. Koslow wrapped things up nicely. The writing style was easy and fluid. In ahort, an enjoyable read!
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It didn't seem that enticing from the summary. However, I really liked it! Georgia made an amazing narrator and her depictions of her daughters were great. The family dynamics were believable and the story line was heart breaking. How must it feel to go through life and one day have it all be a lie. No matter what I thought was going to happen, I wasn't expecting the truth. I enjoyed the ending and felt that Ms. Koslow wrapped things up nicely. The writing style was easy and fluid. In ahort, an enjoyable read!
lexiclexireads's review against another edition
1.0
It's hard to feel anything towards the characters about 90 percent of the time, but the 10 percent of the time you do feel something for them, it's strong. The plot is a good idea in theory, but it was not well executed.
writerrhiannon's review against another edition
4.0
This is a perfect summer read. The cover alone shows how great of a "beach book" this would be. After finding out that her recently deceased husband has failed to provide the financial security that he swore to her was in place for the care of her and their daughters after his death, Georgia Waltz must face reality. No more furs and fancy apartments in the city. Her daughters are now helping her to sell her prized antiques on E-bay and trying to gain their own personal footing as well. The two twenty-something sisters have always had a strained relationship and now they both find themselves needed by their mother while they each are facing major life decisions.
While the story grows out of Georgia's husband's death and "missing" finances, the set of characters and their actions are warm and funny. Georgia's brother and his partner provide great snarky commentary and her daughters are so different but each at the universal doorstep of true adulthood that any woman can relate to their confusion in some way.
I really enjoyed this book, especially after I had just come off a terrible streak of difficult and unfullfilling reads. Stick THE WIDOW WALTZ in your beach bag and you won't be sorry.
*** I received this book in exchange for an honest review, I was not compensated in any additonal manner. ***
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-widow-waltz-by-sally-koslow.html
While the story grows out of Georgia's husband's death and "missing" finances, the set of characters and their actions are warm and funny. Georgia's brother and his partner provide great snarky commentary and her daughters are so different but each at the universal doorstep of true adulthood that any woman can relate to their confusion in some way.
I really enjoyed this book, especially after I had just come off a terrible streak of difficult and unfullfilling reads. Stick THE WIDOW WALTZ in your beach bag and you won't be sorry.
*** I received this book in exchange for an honest review, I was not compensated in any additonal manner. ***
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-widow-waltz-by-sally-koslow.html
leahmichelle_13's review
2.0
When I was offered the chance to read Sally Kowlow’s newest novel The Widow Waltz, I though it sounded like such an interesting read! It comes with plenty of reviews to back it up – three whole pages at the front of the novel and I expected a somewhat light-hearted look at death and widow-hood, and ending up penniless when you least expect it. But I must confess to being disappointed. I’m the kind of reader who just wants a straightforward story. I don’t think authors need to be particularly clever in their writing, and I just felt like Koslow was trying a bit too hard with the novel.
I normally very much enjoy novels where the main character finds herself in a hole thanks to her husband’s death. Or, not just her husband’s death, to be fair. I like how it makes characters have to stand on their own two feet, and perhaps do things they don’t expect, and I was curious to see how Georgia Waltz and her two daughter Nicola and Luey would fare when faced with being poor. It’s rather a sad tale – poor, little rich people who can no longer afford drivers or cleaners or their big fancy house and second home in the Hamptons. It’s very much a tale of people who don’t live in the real world – Georgia hasn’t had a job since she adopted Nicola, Nicola flits from place to place, living off her inheritance, and Luey is a college drop-out. You don’t really sympathise with them; sure, Ben left them in a hole, but there are worse things that can happen to you, and at least Georgia had a ton of niceties to sell off before she had to live on the street. She didn’t really push herself to make her life better, instead she was simply determined to re-discover the missing money, and sully her husband’s name in the process. (Some things are clearly better left unearthed, if the conclusion of the novel is anything to go by.)
I was just very disappointed with the novel, it didn’t grip me, the lives on the New York elite just wasn’t interesting to me because these are people who would never know what it’s really like to be poor. I could understand Georgia’s concerns, and I felt sad for her situation, but I wanted her to pull up her socks and motor through. The writing, too, was hoity-toity and I just wasn’t sure characters would really speak to each other the way they did. I did, however, like the use of first- and third-person narrative, I thought that was cleverly done, so kudos to Koslow for being able to pull that off, not many authors dabble in using different narratives for one book. Sadly The Widow Waltz just wasn’t for me. Many will enjoy the novel, and it probably is a fantastic beach read, it just wasn’t my kind of beach read, it was a one of those novels that’s just a bit too clever for me.
I normally very much enjoy novels where the main character finds herself in a hole thanks to her husband’s death. Or, not just her husband’s death, to be fair. I like how it makes characters have to stand on their own two feet, and perhaps do things they don’t expect, and I was curious to see how Georgia Waltz and her two daughter Nicola and Luey would fare when faced with being poor. It’s rather a sad tale – poor, little rich people who can no longer afford drivers or cleaners or their big fancy house and second home in the Hamptons. It’s very much a tale of people who don’t live in the real world – Georgia hasn’t had a job since she adopted Nicola, Nicola flits from place to place, living off her inheritance, and Luey is a college drop-out. You don’t really sympathise with them; sure, Ben left them in a hole, but there are worse things that can happen to you, and at least Georgia had a ton of niceties to sell off before she had to live on the street. She didn’t really push herself to make her life better, instead she was simply determined to re-discover the missing money, and sully her husband’s name in the process. (Some things are clearly better left unearthed, if the conclusion of the novel is anything to go by.)
I was just very disappointed with the novel, it didn’t grip me, the lives on the New York elite just wasn’t interesting to me because these are people who would never know what it’s really like to be poor. I could understand Georgia’s concerns, and I felt sad for her situation, but I wanted her to pull up her socks and motor through. The writing, too, was hoity-toity and I just wasn’t sure characters would really speak to each other the way they did. I did, however, like the use of first- and third-person narrative, I thought that was cleverly done, so kudos to Koslow for being able to pull that off, not many authors dabble in using different narratives for one book. Sadly The Widow Waltz just wasn’t for me. Many will enjoy the novel, and it probably is a fantastic beach read, it just wasn’t my kind of beach read, it was a one of those novels that’s just a bit too clever for me.
manogirl's review
2.0
Insubstantial, but pretty darn enjoyable. The nagging problem with this...the characters were just NOT deep. Weirdly shallow.
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