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Title: Along Came Mary : A Bad Girl Creek Novel by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 0-7432-2462-0 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Gal_Pal Book
Comment: Although about half of the events in this book took place at the flower farm on the central California coast, much of it followed the travels of Mary Madigan and "Rotten Rick" as they wound their way west from Oklahoma to the coast. The reader knows that a connection will be made but not exactly how.
I was glad to revisit the women of Bad Girl Creek and catch up on their lives. Poor Phoebe is dealing (and not very well) with a personal disaster while Beryl has moved to Alaska with Earl.
Mapson must have great relationships with some really great girlfriends because she has wonderful insight into women's friendships and how women provide unquestioned support for each other.
I love reading and getting lost in this author's stories. As one reviewer said, "you don't just read her books, you take up residence in them." This is so true....... I always feel like I am there, participating in the lives of the well-developed characters, feeling their joy and their pain.
A great read that I hated to finish!
Rating: 5
Summary: It can't get any better than this novel
Comment: I am a huge Mapson fan and was looking forward to her new book. What ended up happening with this one, like all the others, was that I couldn't put it down until I finished. The bad girls are back and better than ever, and surprisingly, "Rotten Rick" is also back! The setting, the problems (and resolutions) these women have, and the story of Rick and Maddy was just so well-written, it felt real to me. What I found the most interesting was the points of view it was written from--in "Bad Girl Creek," it alternated between the points of view of all the women; in this book, it took a different twist and alternated between Phoebe, Beryl, Rick, and Maddy. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about brave, feisty women and one man who eventually shows that he's not rotten. Definite two-plus thumbs up!
Rating: 2
Summary: What Happened To The Bad Girls?
Comment: Fans of "Bad Girl Creek", be forewarned - you won't spend much quality time with the Girls (Phoebe, Ness, Beryl and Nance) here. Mapson's quirky, multi-dimensional characters from her previous novel are little more than minor supporting players in "Along Came Mary". Touted as a sequel, it's mainly the back story of Rotten Rick, who was briefly mentioned in BGC as Nance's loathsome ex, and Mary Madigan, a talented but underacheiving drifter mourning the loss of her twin sister in the Oklahoma City bombing several years earlier. The two meet after Rick loses his dead end job at a music magazine and Mary Madigan (Maddy) ditches her loser boyfriend. They team up as road trip partners, as Rick pursues a career as a journalist, and Maddy tries to make a living singing on the open mike bar circuit, and form an odd relationship as lovers, but not quite friends. Exploring the dynamics of this unlikely pairing might have made for a good story if either Rick or Maddy were interesting or likeable characters. However, Rick was dull and Maddy was irritating (I was ready to throw the book across the room the next time she said the word "feck") and I never grew to like either one of them enough to care about what became of their relationship.
In sharp contrast to the Rick/Maddy storyline were the chapters (sadly, very few) written from original Bad Girl Phoebe's point of view. My heart broke for Phoebe's loss of her first and only love, Juan. Her grief and her anger towards their unborn child were painfully realistic, but tempered by the love of the other Bad Girls as they rallied around to support her. It is in these few chapters, and a few journal entries written by Beryl, that we glimpse the spirit of the original book. However, the lack of any real focus on the other Girls (a subplot about about Nance's eating disorder is reduced to a few pages here and there, and there is virtually nothing of Ness) keeps this from being a true follow up to their story.
Maddy and Rick are briefly brought together with the Girls through a chance meeting with Beryl. The unlikely friendship that sparks between them leads to Beryl urging Maddy to head out to Bad Girl Creek. Aha, one thinks, so Maddy will become the new Bad Girl. Nope! The new roommate hinted at in BGC doesn't appear until the very end. She, like the original four, promises to be a fascinating, multi-layered character - unfortunately, we don't see much of her before the focus jumps back to the tired Rick and Maddy saga.
The chapters focusing on Phoebe give us a tantalizing hint of what a real sequel to BGC could have been, and earns the book the two stars of my rating. Stars are lost by the sheer disappointment caused by the near abandonment of my beloved Girls in favor of the boring Rick and Maddy. Here's hoping the third installment, "Goodbye Earl", will return to true Bad Girl form.
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Title: Goodbye, Earl : A Bad Girl Creek Novel by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 0743224639 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Wilder Sisters by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 0060931078 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 20 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Shadow Ranch : Novel, A by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 0060928433 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Hank & Chloe by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 0060924640 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 18 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Blue Rodeo by Jo-Ann Mapson ISBN: 006092635X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 10 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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