impybelle's review against another edition
5.0
There are some books that are easy to figure out, particularly in anything that might be considered chick-lit. Greetings From Somewhere Else could have easily been one of those books. Girl breaks boy's heart, leaves the country, finds new boy, and wacky hijinks ensue along the way.
The back of the book tells you as much. Thing is? The back of the book is a bit of a tease.
Lainey is very much a bossy, control freak. When she has to leave Australia for a year in Ireland, she decides that it would be for the best if she broke up with her boyfriend Adam. She's sure he'll understand since it's not like they were all that serious anyway.
I mean, he only helped nurse her back to health right after they met, kept her as sane as Lainey ever seems to be when her father suffered an accident at work that left him in horrible pain [as well as turning him into a horrible pain:], and lived in the same building. Sure. A completely casual relationship.
Adam, naturally, saw things differently.
The second best thing about Greetings is that you get a love story in reverse. You know pretty much the second the other guy appears that he's not really a threat to Adam/Lainey. No, the threat to that relationship was always Lainey herself. Instead, you find out all the things Lainey loved about Adam as she remembers them while she's in Ireland. All the things she couldn't really see for what they were at the time, she realizes were far more important than she gave them credit for.
Plus a guy who understands that a girl misses her cat while she's thousands of miles away? Yeah, what's not to love about that?
The best thing about Greetings is that even when you know [or at least hope really strongly:] where the book is going, you still feel something when it gets there. A couple of plot points twist in ways you expect, others don't, but leave you laughing all the same.
I spend a lot of time disliking the main characters in books for various reasons. I honestly liked Lainey, even when she was at her most clueless, and about halfway through the book I wished it would suddenly become longer because I wasn't ready for it to end.
The back of the book tells you as much. Thing is? The back of the book is a bit of a tease.
Lainey is very much a bossy, control freak. When she has to leave Australia for a year in Ireland, she decides that it would be for the best if she broke up with her boyfriend Adam. She's sure he'll understand since it's not like they were all that serious anyway.
I mean, he only helped nurse her back to health right after they met, kept her as sane as Lainey ever seems to be when her father suffered an accident at work that left him in horrible pain [as well as turning him into a horrible pain:], and lived in the same building. Sure. A completely casual relationship.
Adam, naturally, saw things differently.
The second best thing about Greetings is that you get a love story in reverse. You know pretty much the second the other guy appears that he's not really a threat to Adam/Lainey. No, the threat to that relationship was always Lainey herself. Instead, you find out all the things Lainey loved about Adam as she remembers them while she's in Ireland. All the things she couldn't really see for what they were at the time, she realizes were far more important than she gave them credit for.
Plus a guy who understands that a girl misses her cat while she's thousands of miles away? Yeah, what's not to love about that?
The best thing about Greetings is that even when you know [or at least hope really strongly:] where the book is going, you still feel something when it gets there. A couple of plot points twist in ways you expect, others don't, but leave you laughing all the same.
I spend a lot of time disliking the main characters in books for various reasons. I honestly liked Lainey, even when she was at her most clueless, and about halfway through the book I wished it would suddenly become longer because I wasn't ready for it to end.
willac's review against another edition
5.0
Lainey is an event planner--highly organized, energetic, ambitious, a bit bossy. Her father is bedridden after an industrial accident and her mother is getting a bit fed up with the situation. Her three brothers are all a bit eccentric in their own way. And she and her boyfriend seem to be more or less ships passing in the night--he's a chef with his own restaurant, and with their schedules, it seems they hardly see each other at all.
Into this chaos comes a new wrinkle -- an elderly aunt in Ireland has died, leaving a bed & breakfast to her brother, Lainey's father. That's wonderful news, since the family is struggling to pay medical bills, and waiting to get an insurance settlement. They plan to sell the B&B immediately, but there's a stipulation--one member of the family must come to Ireland and live for one year and manage the B&B, or they will lose the inheritance.
Lainey seems to be the logical--or only possible--choice, so she gives up her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, and heads to Ireland to run a B&B, despite never having spent much time either cooking or cleaning in her life.
I read this book in one long Sunday, and enjoyed it immensely. It reminded me a bit of a Cecelia Ahern novel, but that may just have been because of the Irish characters. The book was very well written, and by the end of the book I felt I knew the characters. Lainey grows up in the process of the book, and learns a lot, both about the B&B business, and about herself.
I highly recommend this book, and will search out more of Ms. McInerney's novels.
Into this chaos comes a new wrinkle -- an elderly aunt in Ireland has died, leaving a bed & breakfast to her brother, Lainey's father. That's wonderful news, since the family is struggling to pay medical bills, and waiting to get an insurance settlement. They plan to sell the B&B immediately, but there's a stipulation--one member of the family must come to Ireland and live for one year and manage the B&B, or they will lose the inheritance.
Lainey seems to be the logical--or only possible--choice, so she gives up her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, and heads to Ireland to run a B&B, despite never having spent much time either cooking or cleaning in her life.
I read this book in one long Sunday, and enjoyed it immensely. It reminded me a bit of a Cecelia Ahern novel, but that may just have been because of the Irish characters. The book was very well written, and by the end of the book I felt I knew the characters. Lainey grows up in the process of the book, and learns a lot, both about the B&B business, and about herself.
I highly recommend this book, and will search out more of Ms. McInerney's novels.
jess_segraves's review against another edition
4.0
I actually liked this book a lot. It threw me at first that the author - and the main character - are Australian, not Irish-American. I'm not sure why. But it certainly gave a different vibe and a different tone to the book than would an Irish-American author, I think.
I expected this to be a story like this: Girl is unhappy. Even with her relationship. Girl has the opportunity to return to Ireland. Girl fixes up B&B. Girl reconnects with childhood friend who she falls madly in love with, while ex-boyfriend in Australia moves on too. Like most chick lit books, right?
Wrong. Lainey thought she was happy, and then got snuckered into going to Ireland to fix up a B&B - though she is absolute crap at housework and other domestic duties. She faces all sorts of hassles, and feels lonely while worrying about her problematic family; it's the sort of family that seems pretty realistic with its array of problems and its differing personalities.
I like that Lainey did not fall for Rohan, her childhood friend, but returned to Adam, who went to great lengths to show his love, even from a different hemisphere. The tapes he made with Hugh, Lainey's little brother, remind me of videos from the fellow in Love Actually who pines over Keira Knightley's character.
The ending was happy without being ridiculously trite.
I wasn't, however, a huge fan of McInerney's writing. But it may be a cultural difference, since some paragraphs and dialogue did not seem to flow (to me).
I expected this to be a story like this: Girl is unhappy. Even with her relationship. Girl has the opportunity to return to Ireland. Girl fixes up B&B. Girl reconnects with childhood friend who she falls madly in love with, while ex-boyfriend in Australia moves on too. Like most chick lit books, right?
Wrong. Lainey thought she was happy, and then got snuckered into going to Ireland to fix up a B&B - though she is absolute crap at housework and other domestic duties. She faces all sorts of hassles, and feels lonely while worrying about her problematic family; it's the sort of family that seems pretty realistic with its array of problems and its differing personalities.
I like that Lainey did not fall for Rohan, her childhood friend, but returned to Adam, who went to great lengths to show his love, even from a different hemisphere. The tapes he made with Hugh, Lainey's little brother, remind me of videos from the fellow in Love Actually who pines over Keira Knightley's character.
The ending was happy without being ridiculously trite.
I wasn't, however, a huge fan of McInerney's writing. But it may be a cultural difference, since some paragraphs and dialogue did not seem to flow (to me).
catsbah's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the story was interesting and the characters felt real because they had some depth. I like that it is a story where the main character grows and learns something about herself, and by doing that is able to grow in love. My favourite of Monica's so far.
libraryowl's review against another edition
3.0
Greetings From Somewhere else is a novel about relationships with family, friends, and significant others. Lainey is the main character who has to leave her current life in Australia behind and run a Bed and Breakfast in Ireland. Her aunt stipulated in a will that a member of the family run this B&B before they can inherit it. The family desperately needs the money because of a long term illness that Lainey's father has. So, Lainey leaves behind a boyfriend, friends, family, and the life she has known to take over this B&B. She arrives to find that not everything is as it seems. There is a great deal of remodeling to be done and how does one run a Bed and Breakfast without the ability to cook a meal and without every having done this before. Lainey does the best she can and works hard at it, enlisting the help of a few local friends.
I have to admit that I was bent out of shape at Lainey's friend Eve and her older brother, Brendan. I felt that Lainey was selfless to give up her life to do this for the family. At one point the two of them treat her as though she is the most selfish person on earth. The author seems to believe this as well since the resolution was apologies from Lainey. This bothered me enough to change my review from the four stars it would have had to the three that I gave it. A good book, but honestly little content. More of a decent read when there is not a lot of time for reading.
I have to admit that I was bent out of shape at Lainey's friend Eve and her older brother, Brendan. I felt that Lainey was selfless to give up her life to do this for the family. At one point the two of them treat her as though she is the most selfish person on earth. The author seems to believe this as well since the resolution was apologies from Lainey. This bothered me enough to change my review from the four stars it would have had to the three that I gave it. A good book, but honestly little content. More of a decent read when there is not a lot of time for reading.
hannahmayreads's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Monica McInerney at her best - successful woman struggling with life (but probably in denial), gives up the lot and flees to Ireland. These are the same themes we've seen before from McInerney, but don't think this is a bad thing because we all know that these are the reasons we read and love her books. McInerney has found a successful formula, and I really hope she sticks to it.
This book is a lot predictable, a lot enjoyable and very easy to read. It certainly falls into that 'beach/holiday read' category, and if you like other McInerney books this won't disappoint.
There isn't much else to say really. 'Spin the Bootle' won't excite you or blow your mind with incredible prose, but it will tick all the boxes required for good chick-lit.
This book is a lot predictable, a lot enjoyable and very easy to read. It certainly falls into that 'beach/holiday read' category, and if you like other McInerney books this won't disappoint.
There isn't much else to say really. 'Spin the Bootle' won't excite you or blow your mind with incredible prose, but it will tick all the boxes required for good chick-lit.
robinlm's review
3.0
This is a pleasant beach read, though not the type of book I normally go for. My only big issue with this book is that I felt some of the dialogue was unrealistic, although I admit I don't know what a 'typical' Australian/Irishman sounds like in conversation. The premise was unique and the characters were cute. I never felt there was a slow point in the book, the author did a good job keeping the readers interested by moving along the plot. A couple things took me by surprise towards the end, and usually I can figure plot twists out before the main character does, so I was happy to be tricked in this case. Not overly sappy or romantic, just a light-hearted romp of a book.
Disclaimer: I won this book in a giveaway.
Disclaimer: I won this book in a giveaway.
bdietrich's review
5.0
Pretty good! And I loved that I was totally surprised by Adam's unexpected visit! :)
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