Frances H. (Dimples2212) reviewed Right Next Door: The Courtship of Carol Sommars / Father's Day on + 209 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Two neat and tidy stories from Debbie Macomber. Characters were interesting. In "Father's Day," I enjoyed Jeff, the heroine's son, more than the main characters. His personality and exuberance were so life-like for a kid his age. In "The Courtship of Carol Sommars," my favorite was the heroine's mother, Angelina, an old-world Italian who thinks that her spaghetti sauce is the answer to everyone's problems.
The main problem I had with these stories is that they didn't seem credible to me. Of course, they were originally written in 1990 and 1991 and recently rewritten by the author. It's as though the main characters were caught in a long-ago time warp and just didn't act like characters on the current dating scene. In both stories, the females are reluctant to enter into an intimate relationship (and later accept a wedding proposal) with the males. Nowadays, it's pretty difficult to find a man in that age group that's interested in getting serious or making a life-long commitment. It's even a further stretch that when the females make it clear that they aren't interested, that the males would pursue them even more vigorously than before. Life just isn't like that any more.
Debbie is a good author. But, I'd like to see a little more reality in her stories and less fantasy.
The main problem I had with these stories is that they didn't seem credible to me. Of course, they were originally written in 1990 and 1991 and recently rewritten by the author. It's as though the main characters were caught in a long-ago time warp and just didn't act like characters on the current dating scene. In both stories, the females are reluctant to enter into an intimate relationship (and later accept a wedding proposal) with the males. Nowadays, it's pretty difficult to find a man in that age group that's interested in getting serious or making a life-long commitment. It's even a further stretch that when the females make it clear that they aren't interested, that the males would pursue them even more vigorously than before. Life just isn't like that any more.
Debbie is a good author. But, I'd like to see a little more reality in her stories and less fantasy.
