Review by mratdegraff91 -- The Bennett Women
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mratdegraff91
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Review by mratdegraff91 -- The Bennett Women
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Bennett Women" by Roberta R. Carr.]
4 out of 4 stars
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The Bennett Women by Roberta R. Carr
California author Roberta R. Carr writes the Bennett Women an emotional and absorbing novel. She formally worked in health care before leaving to become a full time author. She is known to enjoy creating works that she considers a slice of life that are driven by a character’s emotional journey. She is the author of two other novels, The Vernazza Effect, and also The Foundation. Her travels also tend to make their way into her work sharing a hidden piece of her own personal life.
This emotional book focuses on the life of three women, a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Muriel, the mother, lives alone in a lake house with a gorgeous view. She is a widow and lost a son when he was only 19 to the Vietnam War. Susanne the daughter has always lived in her brother’s shadow and has been some what neglected by her mother Muriel. This has led her to push her soul purpose into work, with hold all her emotion, and micromanage her daughter’s life. She is divorced and works as a successful CEO. Lilia the granddaughter has spent most of her life focused on her music career with the Cello. She has been pushed and pushed into things she does not quite enjoy. She plays in a quartet with an ungrateful leader who disrespects everyone and does nothing but take advantage of the group. This causes her to no longer enjoy the one thing she loves.
With all these great challenges in their lives things take a turn for the worst when Muriel takes a fall and is hospitalized. Susanne flies across the world to Vietnam putting her mom on the back burner during this trying time. Lilia finds out about her grandmother through Muriel’s closest friend and leaves school and her life to go and be with her. She can’t believe her mother just left her like that and is angered by this as well as trying to leave her in the dark. While there she finds out that Muriel’s neighbor and close friend who was like a grandfather to her has died in a tragic car accident after hitting a deer. She is then reunited with her childhood friend Matt who agrees to help her with her grandmother as they move her back to her home and begin finding a caregiver. The two begin falling for each other and a small romance blossoms in the midst of these tragedies.
Muriel and Lilia make plans for what is best for Muriel and her current situation, but leave Susanne in the dark about it all. Susanne while in Vietnam comes to terms finally with her brother’s death that happened so long ago through the aid of translator Quang Nguyen. She begins to understand what her mother went through and how she would feel if she lost her own child. She begins to feel again and her walls break down. With all this she formulates a plan to reconcile with her mother and live on better terms with her. She leaves the country planning to do so and see that she is established in an assisted living center concurrent with her plans. Little does she know that her plan is about to be debunked by her daughter who she thinks is still at school and in the dark.
This tale was full of so much emotion that I felt like bawling through several parts of the book. While I really enjoyed the storyline and how each character was expressed I also had difficulty staying focused during the sad parts. I would have to put it down and come back to it once my emotions were in check and I no longer felt like crying. The author did a fine job in editing this book, as I was unable to find very many errors. She also had me wondering how the end would play out with all the sad events taking place. I did really enjoy how the author allowed the characters to develop and become honest with each other. In a way it is as if they were able to truly discover what each of their lives were truly like and how miserable certain things had made them.
I also could see the relationship with the author’s background in the medical field with how detailed Muriel’s hospital stay was described. Between scheduling therapy visits and discharging to home the author put a lot of her personal experience into it.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. If you do not like emotional roller coasters or books that make you cry this book is definitely not for you. If you enjoy books that tug at the heartstrings this is for you. With all this being said my final rating of this book is a 4 out of 4 stars. Thank you author Roberta R. Carr for creating this lovely absorbing piece of literature.
******
The Bennett Women
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4 out of 4 stars
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The Bennett Women by Roberta R. Carr
California author Roberta R. Carr writes the Bennett Women an emotional and absorbing novel. She formally worked in health care before leaving to become a full time author. She is known to enjoy creating works that she considers a slice of life that are driven by a character’s emotional journey. She is the author of two other novels, The Vernazza Effect, and also The Foundation. Her travels also tend to make their way into her work sharing a hidden piece of her own personal life.
This emotional book focuses on the life of three women, a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Muriel, the mother, lives alone in a lake house with a gorgeous view. She is a widow and lost a son when he was only 19 to the Vietnam War. Susanne the daughter has always lived in her brother’s shadow and has been some what neglected by her mother Muriel. This has led her to push her soul purpose into work, with hold all her emotion, and micromanage her daughter’s life. She is divorced and works as a successful CEO. Lilia the granddaughter has spent most of her life focused on her music career with the Cello. She has been pushed and pushed into things she does not quite enjoy. She plays in a quartet with an ungrateful leader who disrespects everyone and does nothing but take advantage of the group. This causes her to no longer enjoy the one thing she loves.
With all these great challenges in their lives things take a turn for the worst when Muriel takes a fall and is hospitalized. Susanne flies across the world to Vietnam putting her mom on the back burner during this trying time. Lilia finds out about her grandmother through Muriel’s closest friend and leaves school and her life to go and be with her. She can’t believe her mother just left her like that and is angered by this as well as trying to leave her in the dark. While there she finds out that Muriel’s neighbor and close friend who was like a grandfather to her has died in a tragic car accident after hitting a deer. She is then reunited with her childhood friend Matt who agrees to help her with her grandmother as they move her back to her home and begin finding a caregiver. The two begin falling for each other and a small romance blossoms in the midst of these tragedies.
Muriel and Lilia make plans for what is best for Muriel and her current situation, but leave Susanne in the dark about it all. Susanne while in Vietnam comes to terms finally with her brother’s death that happened so long ago through the aid of translator Quang Nguyen. She begins to understand what her mother went through and how she would feel if she lost her own child. She begins to feel again and her walls break down. With all this she formulates a plan to reconcile with her mother and live on better terms with her. She leaves the country planning to do so and see that she is established in an assisted living center concurrent with her plans. Little does she know that her plan is about to be debunked by her daughter who she thinks is still at school and in the dark.
This tale was full of so much emotion that I felt like bawling through several parts of the book. While I really enjoyed the storyline and how each character was expressed I also had difficulty staying focused during the sad parts. I would have to put it down and come back to it once my emotions were in check and I no longer felt like crying. The author did a fine job in editing this book, as I was unable to find very many errors. She also had me wondering how the end would play out with all the sad events taking place. I did really enjoy how the author allowed the characters to develop and become honest with each other. In a way it is as if they were able to truly discover what each of their lives were truly like and how miserable certain things had made them.
I also could see the relationship with the author’s background in the medical field with how detailed Muriel’s hospital stay was described. Between scheduling therapy visits and discharging to home the author put a lot of her personal experience into it.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. If you do not like emotional roller coasters or books that make you cry this book is definitely not for you. If you enjoy books that tug at the heartstrings this is for you. With all this being said my final rating of this book is a 4 out of 4 stars. Thank you author Roberta R. Carr for creating this lovely absorbing piece of literature.
******
The Bennett Women
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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