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Sandra Harper (1)

Auteur van Over The Holidays

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2 Werken 98 Leden 23 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Sandra Harper

Werken van Sandra Harper

Over The Holidays (2009) 60 exemplaren
High Tea (2008) 38 exemplaren

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Margaret Moore runs a quaint tearoom in downtown Los Angeles, where she’s lived near her ex-husband and grown daughter for decades. A British expat, Margaret adjusted reasonably well to life in the Golden State — but now, after years away from London, she’s wondering what she might have missed. Compounded with her disillusionment over the hurried, superficial lives of L.A.’s residents, Margaret’s daydreams about returning home may become more than fantasies.

Baking scones and brewing tea alongside Margaret at Magpie’s Tearoom are Lilly, a pastry chef who yearns for more out of life — and her relationship with Deborah, her girlfriend much her junior; Clarissa, an aging actress still desperately clawing for that one part to send her on the path to stardom; and Lauren, a younger actress who spends more time gallivanting with her boyfriend than studying the craft of acting . . . but still manages to snag good roles. Lauren and Clarissa are servers at Magpie’s, but tensions around the building are brewing faster (and stronger) than the tea.

Sandra Harper’s High Tea looks to be a light, savory little chick lit novel — and I guess, if I were feeling vapid and ridiculous, I might have enjoyed it more. I read Harper’s Over The Holidays last December and thought it was fun, though it was badly stricken with Too Many Characters-itis. This one suffered the same illness: too many characters and far too many storylines resulted in my total ambivalence about everyone in this quick read.

Margaret is our main character and, as such, we get the most of her back story — which would have been fairly interesting if I had a clue what any of it meant to her. Her ex-husband, Tony, was a starry-eyed actor who brought his young family to Los Angeles as he pursued a stage career. Now older, wiser and, you know, gay, Tony and Margaret have divorced but continue to raise their daughter, Kate, together. As the years have gone on, Margaret and Tony have become friends — even as Tony, now 60, lives with his long-term boyfriend but watches said boyfriend parade young men through the house.

All very interesting, but how was Margaret feeling? She’s a 60-year-old divorcee whose husband — a man with whom she was once madly in love — has left her and come out of the closet. That’s enough to send anyone into a psychotic break, I’d reckon, but we never get even an inkling of emotion from our heroine. This isn’t a fresh wound in the story, of course; all of this went down years before High Tea opens. But still: there’s nothing.

Lilly’s plotline felt completely ridiculous to me, too. Here we have a woman with dreams, ambitions, goals — and the inability to stop being a doormat to her young girlfriend, a high-powered Hollywood producer who treats Lilly more like a mother than a significant other. Lilly is obsessed with their sex life — or lack thereof — and spoiler: she hops into bed with a stranger with absolutely no preamble. Struck dumb by the idea of life without Deborah, Lilly somehow has zero issue cheating on her with someone she doesn’t even know. And suddenly they’re planning a whole life together? In about .567 seconds? What?

Clarissa and Lauren passed in and out of the story so infrequently, I can’t really bother to comment on them. I never got to know either woman, other than that one was “old” and one was “young,” and apparently that’s an “issue” in Hollywood. Yeah, thanks for the breaking news that all starlets are supposed to be fresh-faced, doe-eyed and thin. Got it.

Meh. I won’t go on. I’m a huge fan of chick lit and love tea — hence why I picked this one up, coupled with the pink cover — but I sped through it in no time because I was bored. Margaret’s sojourn to England provided a brief and promising change of scenery, but it never amounted to much.
Lackluster.
… (meer)
 
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writemeg | 2 andere besprekingen | Dec 17, 2010 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
Another light hearted-read, chick-lit book. Though this is lighter than I usually read, it was cute and fun. I do like holiday books so this was perfect to read at Christmas time. I'm not sure I would read this author again but there was a lot to like about it
 
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bookmagic | 19 andere besprekingen | Apr 12, 2010 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
Sandra Harper's holiday novel is a nice way to spend an afternoon relaxing. The title could have double meaning and perhaps that was the authors' purpose; the story takes place over the holidays and also the characters' attitudes toward the holidays.

The book itself only happens for a few short weeks around the holidays but Harper's story packs a punch in that short time frame. Following several women linked by family, we see many different viewpoints on the holidays. Just after Vanessa and her husband JT decide not to travel East as they do every year, her sister-in-law Patience decides to travel to California instead. Vanessa finds it hard to hide her annoyance as she already has her plate full with work and their own holiday preparations. Vanessa also teases with the idea of infidelity over the Christmas break. Patience struggles with not having her standard "perfect" New England Christmas and dealing with a sassy seventeen year old daughter who seems to hate her. Vanessa's older sister Thea is struggling over the holiday season with finding inspiration for her art. And Patience's daughter, Liberty (Libby for short) cannot seem to get through to her mother that she doesn't want the same things has her mother.

Lots of inner turmoil going on in this book from Sandra Harper. And amazingly, she wraps it all up with a perfect little bow by the end of the book. I wasn't sure if this book would be too fluffy for my tastes when I started it. But honestly, Harper has written a book that manages to capture the stresses of the holiday season from many women's point of view in a way that is entertaining and spot-on. I think at one time or another we've all been annoyed at the the fact that much of the holiday preparations fall on the woman's shoulders. It's amazing to see how universal this is through several characters in Over the Holidays. I would recommend this as a holiday read as well as a book for anyone who enjoys Women's Fiction with strong, well-developed characters and a story with some depth to it.
http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/over-holidays.html
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½
 
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bookgirl_Isaacson | 19 andere besprekingen | Feb 20, 2010 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
This was the perfect type of book to read during the holiday season. It was light and entertaining. It started out a little slow for me but once I got into the story I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main character, Vanessa, was easy to identify with and I really wanted things to work out happily ever after for her and her family. While there was some conflict between her and her sister-in-law the author was very adept at making it believable, not over the top like some do. You could tell that deep down they did care for each other. All in all, and enjoyable read.… (meer)
 
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imanivrn | 19 andere besprekingen | Jan 31, 2010 |

Statistieken

Werken
2
Leden
98
Populariteit
#193,038
Waardering
3.2
Besprekingen
23
ISBNs
6

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