Gil McNeilBesprekingen

reminds me of the Blossom street books. not much action, kept waiting for more action or suspense, but good character development kept me reading

Lovely read. Manor house garden fun people animals and children in England

In the beginning of Gil McNeil's novel A Good Year For The Roses, Molly inherits her Aunt Helena's ancient bed-and-breakfast, and brings her three sons from London to a small village full of delightful characters. Moving to a rustic inn could be a perfect fresh start for Molly, recently divorced and thoroughly disillusioned by her teaching positions. Unfortunately, Molly's greedy brother and her miserable ex-husband both think they should have a share in her new inheritance, and this quaint B&B also comes with day-drinking Uncle Bertie, and his cannon. And, Molly's high school boyfriend, recently divorced as well, is back in town.

Author Gil McNeil's real charm is in blending everyday life with a twist of the ridiculous. The whole book is charming and warm, and I read it in two days. (Would have been one sitting, but for some reason, I'm supposed to go to work.)

Read my full review

This was an absolutely wonderful read. It had sat on my TBR shelf for a while but I'm always happy when good books wait for me to pick them up!

Quick cozy predictible fluff, but perfect for end of semester madness escapism with the kiddos. Oh to have a Gran to knit tea cozies with by the sea. Sigh.

10/28/10: Decided to give this one a 2nd read and glad I am because I must have completely blanked this book from my brain - I don't remember it, but I'm enjoying it.

I enjoyed this story of second chances and starting over, but I will say I would have preferred that the language be cleaner.

Not nearly as good as I was led to believe by the title and premise, I'm afraid. I found the stories all fairly standard and not particularly magical. Stopped reading fairly fast. I'll be passing this on and reading something better.

It was lighthearted and at times, funny but not one of my favorites. It never fully grabbed me so I could have put it down at any time and not worried that I didn’t know how it ended. Wasn’t bad enough for me to quit reading it though.

So far so good: higher quality chick lit :-)

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read many books written in present-tense, or that are written in a UK English dialect, but this one didn't disappoint. There were a few technical errors, but it's actually possible that they only seem wrong to me because the writing style is different?

I noticed lots of reviewers complaining about McNeil's language use. I didn't feel like it was excessive--the F-bomb was dropped a small handful of times. She did use the phrase "piss-off" quite a few times, and to her kids "bloody" was a bad word-and it was used several times a chapter at least, so I don't know if some of the reviewers are from the UK and that's why they were offended.

This story was exactly the kind that appeals to me-I felt I could relate to the main character--even if our circumstances are different it seemed like our personalities were very similar. And nothing extraordinary really happened in the book. There were no over the top romances, or thrilling mysteries to solve. It was just a glimpse into this fictitious woman's life.

On a side note, I am even more interested in learning to knit after having read about all the cute things everyone was making.

Synopsis: Jo Mackenzie, recovering from the death of her nearly divorced spouse, moves to a small town and takes over her grandmother's yarn shop. She has to cope with a prima donna PTA president, a fussy employee, a crazy neighbor and his high energy dog, a movie star, and her two young boys. Her best friend, a news anchor, helps her adjust.
Review: As a rule I'm not fond of SOL books, but this book was great fun to read. There is lots of humor and very little whining. Obviously the author has lived in a small town and/or met the folks she's writing about.

This book is full of interesting characters that include a retired British Admiral that needs no excuse to shoot off his cannon, a parrot that uses the most foul language and bites when riled, plenty of farm animals.

Read more: http://from7eight.com/a-good-year-for-the-roses/

I just really like the way she writes. Laugh out loud funny but full of characters you care about.

So far, Gil McNeil has written several variations of the same story. An English woman is divorced or widowed (occasionally both), and is forced to make a new life and livelihood for herself and her young children. She is loyal, witty, fiercely devoted to her children, with strength hidden from most, including herself. She usually has a worldly and successful best friend who is her biggest rooter. There will be a mother or grandmother who recognizes her quality and is her other biggest booster, unless she is the obligatory self-consumed and obnoxious family member who heaps ridicule and scorn upon our heroine until an inevitable and highly satisfying confrontation and telling-off. There will generally be a romantic interest, a plain and soft-spoken man who hovers in the background until circumstances and their own rising attraction draw them together.

This latest book is no exception. Here, Molly Taylor of London is just divorced, and finds that she has inherited her beloved Aunt Helena's three-hundred-year-old Manor House, on the Devon coast where Molly grew up. Molly sets her teeth and proceeds to try to make it a successful bed-and-breakfast, and a home for her three young boys. Her father and brother, who had hoped to add the Manor House to their hotel properties, are strongly opposed.

This is nearly the exact same plot, with the same characters, as Gil McNeil's previous books. And I love her writing, warm and humorous as it is, enough that I don't care. I wish that as long as she was using similar plot and characters anyway, that she would actually stay with the same plot and characters and develop them throughout her books, and let her themes and people mature. She actually did this in her Beach Street Knitting Society trio of books, to great effect. But even if she continues to recycle the same stories and characters as she has been, I will continue to love her writing enough that I will continue to snap up and eagerly devour anything she publishes.½

Fun easy read....lots of tea drinking going on which made me want to drink gallons of tea. A bit predictable but still lots of fun! I enjoyed the characters.

This is one of those books that I want to live in. I loved everything about it; the people, the seaside town, the wool shop, it was all wonderful. This book was really enjoyable and funny, I didn't want it to end!

My favourite characters were definitely the two boys, Archie and Jack; they were so funny at times, and just adorable.

I’m definitely going to be reading the next book in the series, Needles and Pearls.

This one reads like a conclusion to the series. Jo Mackenzie has made some decisions about her life, decisions that she's happy with and knows are right for her, not for someone else. She's come to terms with the loss of her husband and while it's a bit of a gaping hole in her life, she knows that it's not her fault and she can move on from that guilt that's been haunting her.

She's also dealing with some fame, her young toddler, Pearl, Pearl's dad Daniel, the man she likes and might love Martin, and all of her life juggling. Throughout it all she does her best, and though sometimes it's not the best that someone else might have done she does it herself.

It's cosy, light and at times very funny when she tries to deal with incidental stuff. I didn't notice much swearing really (the complaint by other reviewers actually took me by surprise, I hadn't remembered much swearing myself). I found the various parts of life realistic and well portrayed, with the frustrations and issues of real life - although most of us don't have wealthy friends willing to splurge on us.

Interesting, light fun.½

Since I don't knit, I'd been avoiding the numerous knitting-group novels which seem to have supplanted book-club-themed books in the domestic fiction area. But the colorful cover (not the one shown) of the large-print edition led me to pick it off the shelf, and after sampling a few pages I was hooked. The English setting probably helped, as I'm a big fan of Erica James and Katie fforde, whose books have some similarities to this one.

Jo Mackenzie-Jones, formerly an editor for BBC News and now a stay-at-home mother, is having a lot of life-changing experiences all at once. First, her husband Nick informs her of his wish to divorce her (he's been having an affair); next he's killed in a car accident; then she discovers he's taken out a second mortgage on their suburban London home, which she now can't afford. Luckily, her much-loved Gran wants Jo to take over her yarn shop in a coastal town in Kent. So off Jo and her two small boys go, and hijinks ensue -- I especially liked the scenes with Trevor, the soccer-playing dog. Jo updates the shop, makes new friends, and stands up to bullies of one kind and another, while dealing with her still-ambivalent feelings of grief about Nick.

This was a quite enjoyable book with a lot of humor and engaging characters. If you like stories about spunky women doing interesting work, who deal with adversity with a little help from their friends, you'll enjoy this book even if you don't knit a stitch.

Around this time of year, especially before the last two lovely spring days, when the snow is grey and gritty and so are the skies, I often find myself enjoying a few "not-so-trashy trashy novels." These would generally fall into the categories of romance, women's fiction, domestic fiction or "chick lit." I'm pretty choosy about these and have a few authors whose work I look for, such as Erica James and Katie Fforde. Gil McNeil has joined the few with her first two books. Although I don't knit, I have friends and family who do, and I enjoy McNeil's descriptions of the colorful yarns her character chooses for her store in a small British seaside town. Even more, I like the humor, especially when she is writing about the heroine's two small boys and the neighbor's dog. The other characters are fun too. This is a nice undemanding read for the tired businesswoman or mother. I doubt any men will like it.

This could be considered a primer for how not to strangle your kids when they are constantly rambunctious, at each other's throats bickering incessantly. This is explained as sibling rivalry. Some readers might find the perpetual sniping funny. I didn't.

Some of the knitting stories had some interest for me though so I persevered. But this woman should keep her little scamps or hellions if you prefer, far away from sharp objects such as knitting needles.

I bought this online thinking it an unread book by one of my favorite authors, and discovered with mixed feelings that this one is the original hardback version of a book that the author later re-named and re-published in softcover, "The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club". I'll keep it; it's a nice hardback, and the softcover as well; it begins a matched-set trilogy (I'm such a completist). My original review follows:

A quiet charmer of a book about Jo Mackenzie, newly widowed just after her husband told her he was leaving her for another woman. She leaves London with her two young boys to take over her Gran's wool and knitting shop in a sleepy beachside town in England. Nothing phenomenal or earth-shattering happens here; just a growing affection for the characters here, and the honesty, charm and quietly witty dialogue. This is about starting over, with the help of friends, and the effort to preserve the truly meaningful joys in life. I have read books that have been thunderously moving, laugh-out-loud hilarious and pulsating with a deeper meaning. I have read few that I have just plain liked so much.½

This was a fun chick-lit book for anglophiles. You don't have to be a knitter to like this witty bookas it doesn't get technical about this at all. I may read more of this series, but not right away. Jo's friends have potty-mouths and she swears away from the children, so I need a break from that and will read the two on my "to read' list first.½

The sequel to "The Only Boy For Me", this continues the story of Annie Baker, a single mother of 6-year-old Charlie, a production assistant for a boss who makes creative and sometimes madcap TV commercials, whose hectic life is made further so when former flame Mack returns from New York and joins her boss's company as a partner.

I've read six of Gil McNeil's books now, and they all have the following commonalities: A plucky, good-hearted single mother main character who is firstly devoted to providing a good and simple and loving life for her child(ren). A small and strong circle of friends who usually consist of a best friend who is also a single mother (but not always single), and another who is a strong-willed and glamorously successful woman who wonders about marriage and children, but for now is happy to play the field and live vicariously through our main character. A brother or sister, newly married or a new parent, with a deep friendship bond under the clever sibling banter. A mother or grandmother who is loving, supportive and truly proud of the choices our heroine has made. There are no true villains, but there is generally a PTA leader who is a harridan and delights in belittling our main character. And there is generally a love interest, who banters with our heroine in a manner reminiscent of Tracy and Hepburn, but doesn't have a snowball's chance until he realizes that our heroine will always see her best role as that of a good mother.

Sometimes McNeil's books merge confusingly in my memory, so consistent are these similarities. But the books are so well-written, with such heart and style and wit and characters that I really come to care about, that it doesn't really matter. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and look forward to more.½

Jo Mackenzien elämä muuttuu kertaheitolla kun hän jää leskeksi ja kahden pienen pojan yksinhuoltajaksi. Entisen tv-tuottajan uusi ammatti odottaa merenrantakaupungin lankakaupassa, jonka pitämisestä Jon isoäiti luopuu. Muutto Lontoon hyörinästä pikkukaupungin hiljaisuuteen vaatii totuttelua, ja kaupan ja arjen pyörittämiseen tarvitaan paljon luovuutta. Onneksi on olemassa mummi ja monet uudet ystävät, jotka tarjoavat auliisti apuaan tilanteessa kuin tilanteessa. Neulontakerhon säännölliset kokoukset tuovat myös vaihtelua arkeen.

Romanssinpoikasiltakaan ei kirjassa vältytä, vaikkei Jo niitä aktiivisesti etsikään. Glamouria tarinaan tuo myös kuuluisa tähti, joka sattuman kautta päätyy Jon neulomisoppilaaksi. Kirjassa kohtaavat hauskasti ja luonnollisesti kaksi erilaista maailmaa.