Fifty is Not a Four-Letter Word...DNF

About the book:
As Hope Lyndhurst-Steele approaches her 50th birthday, although she "has it all"--top magazine job, wonderful husband, loving son, many friends--fifty still feels like a four-letter word.

But she doesn't know just how low she can go.

When she returns to the office after her holiday break, she's informed by senior management that the "having it all" woman is OUT--and Hope's out along with her. As she starts spending her days at home, her relationship with her usually patient husband Jack starts to become strained, and her teenage son is more interested in chasing after the local trashy single mom than spending his last year at home with his own mother. And Hope's own mother, who she never got along with, has cheerily announced that she's got six months left to live. Hope is relieved when a solo trip to Paris wakes up her long-dormant libido, but when she returns, she finds that her husband is giving her more space than she'd like--he's moved out.

As Hope wonders if she'll be able to make it to fifty-one with her sanity and her family intact, she discovers some interesting truths about herself and her age--and even if 50 is not the new 30, it could be that the best is yet to come. 


Once again I'm in the minority when it comes to my review vs. my fellow book bloggers. This one was hailed as fantastic, terrific and well worth reading. It wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak, and I didn't even finish it.

While I'm on the over 40 side of life, I'm not quite to my 50s yet. However, from the description this sounded appealing. Hope Steele, a top magazine editor has a terrific job, wonderful husband and son. Life can change quickly and as her 50th birthday approaches, Hope loses her job, her husband decides it's over, her son starts running around with a trashy woman and her mother announces her impending death. Hope leaves it all behind and runs to Paris, hoping she can give her life the jump-start it needs.

I didn't like Hope. I found little to redeem her and nothing to make me care about her. I didn't like the s*x scenes and talk (although they were mild, compared to others) and the profanity was vulgar and unnecessary.

Thanks to Miriam Parker at Hatchette Book Group for the opportunity to review this book. I only wish it had lived up to the expectation.

If you're looking for positive reviews, however, there are many to be found, including these great bloggers: bermudaonion, A Blog of Books, and This That and The Other Thing.  You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 5/09

*
1/5 Stars

Comments

  1. That's the whole thing though.Different people like different books.Readers should check out book blogs,find a book they liked and see what the blogger had to say.Then they can work out if they agree and then work from that.I,for one,appreciate the honesty.

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  2. Thank you for your honest review. What's the use if you can't tell the truth? When I don't like a review, I tell my readers to look for other reviews around the blogosphere. But you helped with actual links! Way to go!

    ReplyDelete

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