House on Olive Street (First Time Trade)

This book was another A+ for Robyn Carr!! Her books are so intriguing and interesting. I can read several chapters and put it aside and look forward to picking it up again later. I loved the way she makes me think about why woman face challenges and find resources to successfully get through these life changing events. She is definitely one of my favorite authors.

So often, one opens the new novels written by members of that small and exclusive club of best-selling authors, and the entire book is nothing more than re-cycled garbage. Maybe the garbage once was fresh and new, but after the umpteenth airing, there's nothing to recommend it. Still, these writers have become brand names, so their publishers give each of their new books the big send-off with the requisite advertising budget and a publicity tour. And faithful readers buy these books without hesitation.Then, one stumbles upon a gem, a little perfect gem. THE HOUSE ON OLIVE STREET is just such a gem. Its author deserves the book tour, the big ad budget. Instead, this book simply will have to make its own way on the paperback racks. That's fair neither to Robyn Carr, who wrote HOUSE, nor to the legion of women who look forward to reading good fiction and who should be assisted in finding her novel more easily.This novel has all the elements: A half-dozen complex characters, real and well-drawn, multiple plots, lively prose. The underlying subtext is about values and about love. None of the storylines descend to cliche. Unlike many similar novels, the ending is not entirely predictable, either, much to Ms. Carr's credit. The thread that weaves HOUSE together is a writers' group, with some of the members single, some married, some childless, some with large broods, each of whom writes a different kind of book and all of whom support and nurture the others through every kind of crisis. THE HOUSE ON OLIVE STREET deserves a big success. Read it, you'll like it.

I knew this book was something special when, less than a third of the way through, I found myself thinking about the characters as I was driving around town, thinking about their problems and how I would like to help them solve them as if I were a friend of theirs. The women in this novel are so well-written, so multi-dimensional, you feel as if you've known them for a long time. Each of them has strengths and weaknesses, enjoys grand sucesses and suffers indignities large and small; but what is especially well done is we see how their problems result not only from outside sources but from their own personal faults and idiosyncracies, and this makes the solutions they struggle to find so much more real and riveting. Although the women in this book are all, to a greater or lesser extent, sucessful writers, their story is something anyone can relate to. I recommend this book to all my friends--as an opportunity to make some new, literary ones.

I've enjoyed all of Robyn Carr's romances, but approached this with a bit of caution since it's more women's fiction. I should have had more faith in Carr's talent. This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in months, filled with beautifully constructed characters, relationships, emotion, and humor. (Poor Barbara Ann with her testosterone-ridden household of five hulking males was as funny as she was poignant.) The insights into different aspects of writers' lives were also dead on. I hope we see many, many more equally fine women's fiction novels from Ms. Carr.

Ms. Carr's THE HOUSE ON OLIVE STREET is that good. It has been quite a while since I've had the joy of reading such a satisfying book. Ms. Carr's characters became my friends; I laughed, cried, and shouted in triumph with them as each grew and experienced events that I could relate to, both as a struggling writer and simply as a person. Be prepared to put down everything else while you read; my world stopped while I experienced the lives of these remarkable women--Beth, Elly, Sable and Barbara Ann, and their families. Thank you, Robyn, for a terrific read! This book is beautiful.

This book dealing about women in a writers' critique group is not only a wonderful book about women's friendships but also gives some insight into the world of writers. We meet Sable, a bestselling author of romance novels who has a past she is reluctant to reveal but comes back to haunt her when a tabloid reporter tries to dig up dirt on her; Ellie, a professor, nonfiction writer, and book reviewer who hides a private romance with a man she's embarrassed to introduce to her friends; Barbara Ann, a prolific author of category romances who wants to break out into single title books but whose life taking care of a husband and four young adult sons is standing in her way; Beth, a popular mystery author whose books are her outlet for dealing with an abusive husband; and posthumously we meet Gabby, an author whose books have never been bestsellers in part due to an editor who wasn't really committed to her. The women gather together after Gabby's death in order to organize her personal papers, and all for one reason or another end up spending the summer in Gabby's home together. This is a terrific read and I can only hope it gets the audience it deserves. Brava Ms. Carr!