Helpful Score: 4
I am RE-posting this book. I give it 5 stars easily!!! It was impossible to put down... literally!! I was up into the wee morning hours reading this book!! Mitchard is at her best with character development, and character dialogue, and all the different twists and turns in this story make it TOP NOTCH !! Mitchard explores many different "threads" in this novel... such as, the age factor between men and women in a relationship... what if the man is younger and the woman a little older ? Can the relationship work? Also, what it's like to be a widow raising a child on your own, and what it's like trying to raise that child and also start up and run your own business? This story is all about family relationships, too , and the importance of a circle of supportive , good friends when
crises and challenges come. Most importantly, this story is about the strenths and weaknesses and foibles we all share as human beings, and how, when you get right down to it, LOVE is what REALLY MATTERS !! A wonderful read !!!!!!!!
crises and challenges come. Most importantly, this story is about the strenths and weaknesses and foibles we all share as human beings, and how, when you get right down to it, LOVE is what REALLY MATTERS !! A wonderful read !!!!!!!!
Helpful Score: 3
I love Jacquelyn Mitchard's book but this one was awful!
It took forever for the book to start developing and I kept saying to myself....yea, yea...who cares?
I was very, very dissappointed by this book. Read her other books like Theory of Relativity or The Most Wanted.
It took forever for the book to start developing and I kept saying to myself....yea, yea...who cares?
I was very, very dissappointed by this book. Read her other books like Theory of Relativity or The Most Wanted.
Helpful Score: 2
What a great story! Jacquelyn Mitchard's characters are so real and interesting. Really enjoyed it.
Helpful Score: 2
I absolutely loved this book! What a good story, wonderful characters, and a real feel-good novel.
Helpful Score: 2
I liked this book very much!
I have read good books from author, but this was not one of them.
It was lame, predictable, annoyingly cute in places. I was very disappointed.
It was lame, predictable, annoyingly cute in places. I was very disappointed.
A really "up" book - left you smiling. True Dickinson lost her husband eight years ago and is feeling a little blue on her birthday. Then an unexpected accident opens a new door for her. Her business, providing a baby gift each month for the first year of a newborn's life, gives the book its title and some very nice chapter designations!
First time with this author and I am hooked! This is the best written and intelligent story of romance that I have found after 2 years of reading constant romance stories from a multitude of authors, I highly recommend this story! The story follows a year in the life of a widowed women with a young son, what folows is a very involved story of her life and times.
True's Birthday and all her friends have come to make it a joyous event on a snowy night. But in her heart she can't be completely joyous. Her husband has passed away and she is having a hard time getting over this. But an accident on the night of her Birthday will give True the oppertunity to let love back in, if she will let it. This was a beautiful story, love, loss, grief, reclaiming life again. I found it sad, refreshing, and down to earth, & at the end it pick me & left me loving this read. This author, as in her other novels, The Deep End of the Ocean, and The Theory of Relativity, has created another wonderful memorable read.
This is a story of a widow who owns a successful business, has great friends and family. She faces unexpectid joys and challenges as she dares to let love back into her life. The story is funny and romantic and entertaining.
Inspiring, it could happen to you!
good love story about marriage to a younger man
NYT best seller. A sweet, funny, romantic tale about life possibilities at any age.
I have enjoyed Mitchard's previous books, and was surprised to find this book did continue with her earlier promise as an author. I thought the characters were not believable, which makes it difficult to care what happens to them. There simply is no depth to this book. I never quite understood the reasons why True and Hank separated. Their utter self absorption was wearying at best and the plot was too thin to hold my interest. It was an effort to keep reading.
This book will keep your attention and make you want to read it again and again!
From http://www.curledup.com/12times.htm
Perhaps its because of the eight years she spent as a widow raising a son and launching a business that True Dickinson cant fully let a new man into her life. Or maybe its because secretly she cant even tell her best friend, Franny True believes this really couldnt be love forever and ever. Not between this gorgeous young man and a woman old enough to be, well, an older aunt.
True also must think of her son, Guy. He lost his father when he was two and he doesnt need to start loving another man who may be only temporarily in their lives. So maybe it would be better to forget trying to build any kind of future and simply satisfy the incredible lust that fills her every time she sees him.
Hank Bannister, however, has another plan. He seduces True emotionally, as well as physically, and leads her to that place where she cant say no to his proposal. To hell with what the stuffy Cape Cod society will whisper about this May/December romance. To hell with what her mother, Kathleen, who has chosen widowhood as a way of life rather than a phase of life, will say. True simply cannot ignore a man who says, youre not an option to me, True. Youre my destiny. Youre the one I knew would come. But I didnt know youd come walking right into my restaurant, with your wet hair loose around your face, and your cheekbones like somestature, and look me square in the eye, and basically challenge me.
As True and Hank struggle to make a marriage out of that first incredible attraction, they dont seem to quite grasp the fact that it takes complete trust to make that happen. And it doesnt help when his former girlfriend shows up. Hank and True do this little emotional dance around what is happening to complicate their relationship and almost miss the really important part.
If this were a simple romance, the story would end there, but there is nothing simple in this multi-layered tale with a cast of endearing characters. The title comes from Trues business which sends gifts every month for the first year of a babys life, making the child Twelve Times Blessed, and the people who work for her are a delightful group. Their bonds run deep and they are closer than some families.
Like Jacquelyn Mitchards other books, A Theory of Relativity, The Deep End of the Ocean, and The Most Wanted, the writing in Twelve Times Blessed is both frank and humorous, and the story is rich in physical and emotional detail:
Except for the night of the altercation at the theater, she and Hank have spoken only in passing, like an elderly a cursorily hostile married couple who confine their conversation to an exchange of condiments.
At other times, the prose is like an emotional tidal wave. When True is racked with doubt about Hank, Stay forever. Dont leave me. True digs her nails into her forehead. She will not say it. And again when Guy is seriously ill,
When Kitt leaves, True somehow feels that a great dam has been broken, that nothing will any longer be forbidden to flow over and to claim her. She sits on the bed and cries until she is drained, and her nasal passages are as sore as if shes swum underwater for hours. It is all so very real, and she is so wicked sick of bawling. She should by now be a husk, instead of a water balloon.
This is a funny, intelligent book and well worth the read.
From http://www.curledup.com/12times.htm
Perhaps its because of the eight years she spent as a widow raising a son and launching a business that True Dickinson cant fully let a new man into her life. Or maybe its because secretly she cant even tell her best friend, Franny True believes this really couldnt be love forever and ever. Not between this gorgeous young man and a woman old enough to be, well, an older aunt.
True also must think of her son, Guy. He lost his father when he was two and he doesnt need to start loving another man who may be only temporarily in their lives. So maybe it would be better to forget trying to build any kind of future and simply satisfy the incredible lust that fills her every time she sees him.
Hank Bannister, however, has another plan. He seduces True emotionally, as well as physically, and leads her to that place where she cant say no to his proposal. To hell with what the stuffy Cape Cod society will whisper about this May/December romance. To hell with what her mother, Kathleen, who has chosen widowhood as a way of life rather than a phase of life, will say. True simply cannot ignore a man who says, youre not an option to me, True. Youre my destiny. Youre the one I knew would come. But I didnt know youd come walking right into my restaurant, with your wet hair loose around your face, and your cheekbones like somestature, and look me square in the eye, and basically challenge me.
As True and Hank struggle to make a marriage out of that first incredible attraction, they dont seem to quite grasp the fact that it takes complete trust to make that happen. And it doesnt help when his former girlfriend shows up. Hank and True do this little emotional dance around what is happening to complicate their relationship and almost miss the really important part.
If this were a simple romance, the story would end there, but there is nothing simple in this multi-layered tale with a cast of endearing characters. The title comes from Trues business which sends gifts every month for the first year of a babys life, making the child Twelve Times Blessed, and the people who work for her are a delightful group. Their bonds run deep and they are closer than some families.
Like Jacquelyn Mitchards other books, A Theory of Relativity, The Deep End of the Ocean, and The Most Wanted, the writing in Twelve Times Blessed is both frank and humorous, and the story is rich in physical and emotional detail:
Except for the night of the altercation at the theater, she and Hank have spoken only in passing, like an elderly a cursorily hostile married couple who confine their conversation to an exchange of condiments.
At other times, the prose is like an emotional tidal wave. When True is racked with doubt about Hank, Stay forever. Dont leave me. True digs her nails into her forehead. She will not say it. And again when Guy is seriously ill,
When Kitt leaves, True somehow feels that a great dam has been broken, that nothing will any longer be forbidden to flow over and to claim her. She sits on the bed and cries until she is drained, and her nasal passages are as sore as if shes swum underwater for hours. It is all so very real, and she is so wicked sick of bawling. She should by now be a husk, instead of a water balloon.
This is a funny, intelligent book and well worth the read.
This is a wonderfully written stroy of taking a chance on love and a chance on a new life. Written by the author of The Deep End Of The Ocean.
Starting your own business as a single widowed mother is a challenge, but so is getting back into the dating scene. This is a long book with lots of details. Not my favorite by Mitchard, but an interesting read.
Wonderful story! Good business idea too.
A story of transformation and an unforgettable tale of the perils and pleasures of modern love, Twelve Time Blessed is a powerful, moving novel of the heart from one of our most gifted and best-loved storytellers.
Good book :)
Fascinating read! I stayed up until 1 a.m. finishing it off, because the plot was so unexpectedly good that I didn't want to put it down. The characterization was superb - just like you really know them. But whenever you think you know the people in the book best, they surprise you. A nice, easy read from a well-established author with great insights into human nature.
A "New York Times" bestseller about the unexpected turn of life's events and the possibilities of love.
Easy read, enjoyed the story. Kind of a mystery/love story
NY Times best seller Author agian produces a beautiful tale of modern love.
I loved Deep End of the Ocean and Theory of Relativity, but was extremely disappointed in this book. The characters were not compelling, in fact it was hard to imagine any people being this emotionally immature. I doubt this book would have been published if not for her other successes. Don't waste your time.
The author of The Deep End of the Ocean delivers once again in this overstuffed story about a middle-aged woman's complicated second marriage. She chronicles one year in the life of True Dickinson, the owner of a thriving mail-order business on Cape Cod. Widowed for eight years, she is raising her 10-year-old son, Guy, with the help of her office assistant, Isabelle, and her controlling mother, Kathleen. On her 43rd birthday, she is lamenting her lack of love life when fate, in the form of a road accident, brings her together with Hank Bannister, a man 10 years younger than she. They court and marry quickly-then life gets tricky. Having been freewheeling most of his life, Hank is loath to accept his new responsibilities. True, for her part, must do more than just pencil him into her structured life; he wants to feel needed and integral. Hank, a sexy chef of Creole background, is as much a laid-back Southerner as True is a mistrustful New Englander. "He may be one in a million. Or this may be the biggest ratio of bullshit since time began," True thinks. Mitchard infuses the courtship and domestic life with gentle humor. Kathleen is a caricature of the withholding mother, but such characters as True's brother, Dog; her new mother-in-law, Clothilde; and True herself resonate with distinctive voices as Mitchard explores the intimate details involved in making a family work.
Did not like this book. Main character was very insecure and did alot of stuff to ruin her marriage because of her insecurities. Unfortunately for me, I need to finish a book once I start. This book took forever to read. will not read anything else by this author.
