utter Tripe
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After picking this up with not a lot of expectation (I hated a previous Erica James book and really wanted to see if she could redeem herself) I literally THREW this book against the wall in frustration!! This is a truly Awful book, full of one dimensional, achingly predictable characters, and obvious, boring and again PREDICTABLE plot lines!!
I think Erica James just has a standard outline for a story, and substitutes the names of the characters, makes it 'Lucy' who's having a crisis about a man, instead of 'Charlotte', makes it 'Hunter' who has an affair this time, instead of 'Derek' blah blah blah...
I only got around about 25 pages in, so I can't tell you the actual story line past that point, although I read enough that I can probably tell you anyway! The author intertwines various characters life stories, and makes them all connected by their love of...wait for it,...gardening - funnily enough. But as I've said, all the characters are very flat and you will not care a jot what happens to them in this dull story.
The last straw for me was one of the characters wanting a miraculous cure for period pain, calls for a 'Chick Flick', and then the author goes on to rip to pieces a wonderful film 'Love Actually', and turn it into just an electronic wallpaper film about a man cheating on his wife (which it is NOT). Strangely enough, if the author had thought about it more - a lot of comparison can be made between this book and that film (with the format I mean - lots of characters intertwined), and I wonder if she thought of that when choosing her chick flick to mention. I doubt it somehow.
So utterly awful, it'll be going in the recycling shortly, I'm not inflicting it on another reader.
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Delightful and delectable
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This was the first Erica James book that I have read and it was a Christmas present from my mother 2 christmas's ago but I have only just got round to reading it.
I enjoyed the book very much, the characters were believable and Erica's style of writing is very easy to get into. Each character had their own part to play in this novel that featured lovely village life in Norfolk and then the gorgeous Italian surroundings of Lake Como. The only reason I have given this book 4 stars is that I was longing for the characters to go on their lovely holiday to Lake Como so that Erica could describe in great detail the glory and splendour of it but we were quite a way into the book before the holiday in Italy began which was a shame but I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes gardens, chick lit and an author who likes to get under the skin of her characters and make us really feel their emotions.
I will definitely read another Erica James book.
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Delightful and delectable
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This was the first Erica James book that I have read and it was a Christmas present from my mother 2 christmas's ago but I have only just got round to reading it.
I enjoyed the book very much, the characters were believable and Erica's style of writing is very easy to get into. Each character had their own part to play in this novel that featured lovely village life in Norfolk and then the gorgeous Italian surroundings of Lake Como. The only reason I have given this book 4 stars is that I was longing for the characters to go on their lovely holiday to Lake Como so that Erica could describe in great detail the glory and splendour of it but we were quite a way into the book before the holiday in Italy began which was a shame but I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes gardens, chick lit and an author who likes to get under the skin of her characters and make us really feel their emotions.
I will definitely read another Erica James book.
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Delightful
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This was the first book by Erica James that I read.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - the story was enjoyable and the characters endearing. I like her style of writing, and because engrossed very quickly.
I read most of the book in my garden whilst enjoying the Easter sunshine, which was very fitting as the book was based on a garden theme.
I was even tempted to peek at the last page ... which is always a sign of a good book :-)
I will definitely read more of Erica James' books.
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I can't wait for the next one!
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Thank you for a great read. I love Erica James' books they are always a delight to read and this one is no exception. The characters are well developed and I really wanted to find out what was going to happen to them. I can usually identify closely with one of the main characters and this book was no exception. Please hurry and finish your next book.
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