Kate KerriganCritiques

¿Existe la receta para un matrimonio perfecto? De ser así, ¿cómo mezclar los ingredientes en su justa proporción? Igual que al preparar un pastel, un día puedes acertar y al siguiente no: ayer demasiado dulce, hoy un tanto insípido, mañana una pizca amargo. Se dice que el elemento imprescindible es el amor, pero existen muchas clases de amor y muchas maneras de entenderlo. Y además, hay que añadir otros factores como el romanticismo, el sexo, la fidelidad o la afinidad de intereses, por no hablar de la mayor renuncia de todas: la independencia personal. Precisamente esto último se ha vuelto un martirio para Tressa, una escritora neoyorquina que, recién llegada de su luna de miel, se plantea la pregunta del millón: ¿se ha casado por amor o por miedo a quedarse sola?
Seguramente Tressa se sentiría mucho mejor si leyese los diarios de su abuela Bernardine, unas páginas de incalculable valor humano donde se relata cómo, en los años treinta, contrajo matrimonio con un apacible maestro de escuela después de que su familia no consintiera su boda con el impetuoso Michael, a quien amaba con ardorosa pasión. Entre recetas tradicionales de tartas de ruibarbo, mermelada de grosella y pan casero, el lector descubrirá la verdad que la propia Tressa ignora sobre sus abuelos y su madre, y quizá también encuentre, de paso, la clave para conseguir el verdadero matrimonio perfecto.

I think one of the reasons for me liking this book so much is because I really liked the women in this book, or rather two of them, Ava and Sheila. Rose was a bit harder to like, although, in the end, I did find myself warming up to her.

It Was Only Ever You is such an interesting story about three very different women who end up playing very important roles in Patrick Murphy's life. We have Rose, his sweetheart in Ireland, Ava, the warmhearted woman with low self-esteem who falls for him despite being engaged to another man and the self-assured Sheila who is hellbent on turning Patrick into a star.

For me was Patrick not the star of the book, he was the thing that connected the woman, but what I found interesting was the period, the life of the women and their struggle. I found myself totally fascinated with each of the women's journeys (yes even Rose's now and then), although there were some parts that made me roll my eyes mentally, mostly when Rose took the center in the story. But, even Rose would in the end, as I mentioned, grew on me. And, even though it was not the ending I wanted, I still liked how Kate Kerrigan decided to end the book.

It Was Only Ever You is an intriguing book, with many strong women in focus. I quite liked the book and I'm looking forward to reading more from Kate Kerrigan!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

I think one of the reasons for me liking this book so much is because I really liked the women in this book, or rather two of them, Ava and Sheila. Rose was a bit harder to like, although, in the end, I did find myself warming up to her.

It Was Only Ever You is such an interesting story about three very different women who end up playing very important roles in Patrick Murphy's life. We have Rose, his sweetheart in Ireland, Ava, the warmhearted woman with low self-esteem who falls for him despite being engaged to another man and the self-assured Sheila who is hellbent on turning Patrick into a star.

For me was Patrick not the star of the book, he was the thing that connected the woman, but what I found interesting was the period, the life of the women and their struggle. I found myself totally fascinated with each of the women's journeys (yes even Rose's now and then), although there were some parts that made me roll my eyes mentally, mostly when Rose took the center in the story. But, even Rose would in the end, as I mentioned, grew on me. And, even though it was not the ending I wanted, I still liked how Kate Kerrigan decided to end the book.

It Was Only Ever You is an intriguing book, with many strong women in focus. I quite liked the book and I'm looking forward to reading more from Kate Kerrigan!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

Very different writing style.
Two stories, one present day heroine, one history of her grandmother.
Both heroines were quite dislikeable and selfish at times but that's maybe due to their honesty in their perspective.
No intimate scenes.
Modern day heroine is constantly unsure of her feelings for her new husband and tries to resolve this by kissing an ex. She planned to have sex with him but couldn't go through with it.
The grandmother is refused marriage to her "Micheal" and feels she's in love with him throughout most of her marriage.
Both husbands deserved a sainthood.
HEA sort of. The grandmother comes to certain realisation so thats her HEA.

I had trouble getting into this book and I had trouble finishing it.

The story rotates perspective between Lily, Joy and Honor.

Lily is a popular vintage clothing blogger. She once had dreams of being a designer.

The other two stories took place in the past:
Joy-a beautiful socialite with nothing but money and time, but what she really wants is love
Honor- a young designer who gets her big break when Joy hires her exclusively to make a dress for a very important night

The dress sounds amazing, if it were real I would love to see pictures.

But the story is just extremely depressing for most of the book.
Joy married Frank thinking she'd found love, he wanted a baby and her first disappointment to him was that she did not get pregnant. When she turned to alcohol, she disappointed him again. When she stopped drinking, he felt she'd waited too long and that he didn't love her anymore. As much as Joy just wanted love, she disappointed her husband practically every day.

Having the dress made was her grand gesture to win back his love.

I'm not even going to touch on how downhill Honor's story went.

I am very thankful that Joy was ultimately able to find happiness by the end but I guess I would have liked it if Joy and Honor both figured things out earlier and got their lives back on track much earlier.

This novel is the second installment of Kate Kerrigan’s Ellis Island. In here, Ellie, in her early thirties, becomes a widow when her husband, John dies of a sudden heart attack. Left with only the pain of her husband’s passing, she decided to leave the small town of Kilmoy, Ireland to go back to New York City- the state she once belongs to.

To be honest, I have no idea that this novel is a part of a series when I bought it. I am the kind of reader who buys books on impulse. It has been my tradition that once in a while I will buy novels and titles that did not and will never make it to the New York Times bestselling list because when perceive in totality, they are actually the best and holds the greatest things within the readers’ hearts. Although they do not have the recognition of great book reviewers around the world, I have in me the faith that great works of literature are hard to find. And I think it is great taking some risks at a certain moment in our lives. Enough with my tradition and stuff, I would start my review with the City of Hope by saying that this novel gives me hope. I don’t want to sound cliché in here, but it is really true. I’m glad that I have found this gem of literature in one of my book quests.

City of Hope’s storyline is good. Not the best, but it is good. What I admire and love most about this novel is its setting. I am very verbal about how much I love a certain story when it is set in the earlier time or era, and the City of Hope is no exception. I love how it showcases the early New York City and at the same time some part and time in Ireland. Recently, I just read Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star, and as for the people who haven’t read it just yet, it is also set in New York City however in the present time. I like how my imagination kind of wonder from the two novels with the same settings, and although I love Nicola Yoon’s setting, I like the earlier picture of New York in the City of Hope. Even though, given that New York City is already developed as a city compares to other cities and states in the world, I can still picture out the simplicity of things back then. That is why I always consider myself as a fan of novels set in an earlier time because it brings me to a different perspective and at the same time let me live in a different time.

I totally enjoy my reading process of this novel. It has been a light read and in some way kind of inspires me to continue living the way Ellie handles her life in the story. I’m truly grateful to Kate Kerrigan and to all the authors in the world who write and offer literature that inspires their readers during and after they read their work. With all this being said, I‘d like to recommend this book to my Goodreads friends and to everyone who will/currently reading this book review to give this book/series a try. It is a journey filled with both pain and joy, of depression and moving forward, of ups and downs, and everything in between the beauty of life itself.

Three women and one dress. London 2014, Lily Fitzpatrick loves vintage clothes. When she comes across an article about a legendary evening dress she has to find out more about it. New York in the 1950's Joy Fitzpatrick is a very beautiful socialite and employs Honour to make her the best dress ever seen.

This book sounded interesting and although I am not a chick lit reader sometimes I need a change. The story was ok and there was enough to hold my interest. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the three women and the dress.

What I enjoyed was the story and the I wanted to see how it was going to pan out. Three women all connected by the dress all with their own story. I enjoyed the making of the dress and the descriptions.

What I didn't enjoy was the story was a little slow to start. Once it got going it was ok. The story was predictable and I could easily guess how it was going to go. I cringed when Lily used the word dreamboat.

A nice easy read and it made a change from dead bodies but very predictable. A little flat at times but had lovely descriptions.

The Dress by Kate Kerrigan is a plot-driven book across two time periods. The book starts slow, with a lot of time spent on the initial setup and the first creation of the dress. Then, all of a sudden, everything seems to happen with the story delving into a lot of different topics. The "why" and "how" unfortunately are missing. Although a plot driven drama can make for a wonderful book, without the explanations, this story loses its sense of reality for this reader.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2016/11/the-dress.html

Reviewed based on a publisher’s galley received through NetGalley

Lily Fitzpatrick loves vintage clothes, made all the more precious because they were once owned and loved by another woman. Thousands follow her vintage fashion blog and her daily Instagram feed. But this passion for the beautiful clothes of the past is about to have unforeseen consequences, when Lily stumbles upon the story of a 1950s New York beauty, who was not only everything Lily longs to be, but also shares Lily's surname. Joy Fitzpatrick was a legend. But what was the famous dress which she once commissioned, said to be so original that nothing in couture would ever match it again? What happened to it—and why did Joy suddenly disappear from New York high society? Kate Kerrigan's enthralling novel interweaves the dramatic story of Joy, the beautiful but tortured socialite, and that of Lily, determined to uncover the truth and, if possible, bring back to life the legendary dress itself.

I picked this story because it presents a few elements I like: it’s an historical novel, it’s set in the Twenties, it has an Irish protagonist. It’s the story of an Irish immigrant to Roaring Twenties America, I thought it was going to be a journey of discovery, not only on the outside, but also on the inside. The contrast between Irish rural life and the boasting modern life of Twenties New York promised to be exiting and interesting.

Uhm…

Maybe I was expecting too much, but where this story presents an interesting concept, the execution didn’t quite meet my expectation.
I actually enjoyed the first 100 pages, where the main characters are still kids. I liked the way they tried to be together, overcoming the limits of the rural society they lived in. But as soon as they became adults my interest dropped, I think for two reasons: I found the MC, Ellie, seriously unsympathetic, and many historical events are treated with excessive superficiality.
I found the way the author treats the fight for independence particularly unsatisfying. I never felt the pressure, the hopes, the pain, the uncertainty that I connect with the concept of fighting for freedom of your own home coming across to me. The war is portrayed as distant and never really impacted the characters in a profound way, not even when their lives are changed. Or maybe this is because Ellie is so utterly uninterested and even resentful to the fight that nothing but that indifference came to me.

Everything seemed so easy. Ellie leaves Ireland alone (and I do wonder whether this is really accurate, historically) for New York. The journey across the ocean is easy and comfortable. She reaches New York and she has a job. She gains more and more with no particular effort and – I’d say – no particular merit either. She meets one of the richest men in NY and he falls in love with her. I mean… And all the while, even when she stresses the fact she’s doing this for John, she acts as if she really didn’t care for no-one but herself. Her own achievements are always the paramount idea in her mind, she never considers renouncing anything for someone else.
I had a very hard time connecting with her.

The ending was completely unsatisfying, maybe because it’s quite unclear. I came to it and wonder: well, so what? The story presents lots of threads that seem to go nowhere and don’t add anything to the story. The plot was very confused and the main character never seemed to be affected by it.
It was a big disappointment for me.

I was rather disappointed by this first book for my new book club. It was very simply written with one very simple story line. I kept looking for something else to happen.

Ellie is a young girl who falls in love with John and elopes with him rather than entering the convent as desired by her pious father. John is a fighter in the fight against the British occupation who gets seriously wounded. The operation which he requires costs a great deal of money and Ellie goes to NYC to earn money to send home to him so he can have the surgery. Ellie struggles in NY but she has it easier than most in that she arrives with a position. She adjusts well to American life and has to make a choice to stay in America or return home to John.½

A wonderful light read, funny, informative about how fashion shoots
happen nowadays, very entertaining.½

This is the first Kate Kerrigan book that I've read. It was quite a nice read, quite predictable in parts. I did enjoy the writing style and it kept me interested. I found Tressa pretty annoying although I could understand how she felt at times.I felt sorry for James, how he stayed in that marriage to Bernadine for so long I'll never know. The relationship between Bernadine and all of the other characters makes me feel sorry for her too. The partner she loved disappeared, she had to marry this school teacher at her parents request, her relationship with her parents and daughter, her love for Michael after all those years. It makes you feel sad that she appeared to have such little happiness.
3.5/5

Having read the first 2 books in this trilogy, I was looking forward to continuing this Irish- American story. It seemed a bit of a letdown after the other 2 books. It is not a book that makes me want to read more by this author.

A dual timeframe story set mainly in London during the present day and in New York during the late 1950s, revolving around the designing, making and wearing of a magnificent dress, a dress which fairy tales and dreams are made of! After her grandfather dies, vintage fashion blogger Lily Fitzpatrick comes across an old photograph in 'Vogue' of a beautiful woman sharing the same surname as herself and sporting a glorious and bedazzling dress. Is she related to Lily and just what is the history behind 'the dress'?

This is an intriguing tale with some interesting characters, not all of them likeable. It is nicely written with a good storyline. It kept my interest throughout and I thought the flitting between eras was accomplished seamlessly. The fashion industry is well researched and I found this fascinating in itself. It is light hearted and entertaining, but it also covers some serious topics such as alcoholism and a marriage breakdown.

The Dress is an easy, delightful and engaging read which should appeal to those who have an interest in the creative arts, particularly vintage fashion design, and like relationship stories with a hint of glamour! I very much enjoyed it.

Many thanks to Lovereading.co.uk for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Picked this book up at a book fair and didn't realise it was the second book of a trilogy until I was three-quarters of the way into the book. As a stand alone book I really enjoyed this and openly cried at the beginning and the end. ;)½

Readers first met Ellie Hogan in Kate Kerrigan's novel Ellis Island. We followed Ellie as she married the love of her life John, came to America to make money for an operation John needed, and was emotionally torn as she built a life in New York while missing her husband back home.

The second book in the trilogy, City of Hope, covered Ellie's life back home in Ireland with her husband. It was a difficult adjustment, moving back to a farm in rural Ireland after living in an exciting, vibrant city. After John's death, a grieving Ellie comes back to New York and opens a home for people who lost their homes during the Depression, eventually building an entire community.

The third book in the trilogy, set in 1942, is Land of Dreams, which finds a middle-aged Ellie living on Fire Island working on her art. Ellie is a painter, and she has a bit of a following. She has two sons, Leo, the sixteen-year-old son of her second husband Charles, and seven-year-old Tommy, who was left as a baby by his mother in Ellie's care.

When Leo runs away from his boarding school, Ellie tracks him down in Hollywood, where he hopes to find a career as an actor in the movies. She intends to take him back home, but after finding him, she decides to give him a chance at the screen test his young agent Freddie has set up for him.

Leo gets a small role in a war movie, and Ellie doesn't have the heart to make Leo give up his dream. As an artist, she understands Leo's desire to express himself. She brings Tommy and Bridie, the elderly woman whom she first met when they both worked as household staff years ago in New York, to Hollywood.

The family sets up in Hollywood where they seem to enjoy the sunshine lifestyle. This is a different Ellie than we have seen before. In the first two books, she was working and struggling to build a life for herself and her community. Now Ellie is middle-aged, and responsible for her two sons.

Ellie had miscarriages during her marriage to John, which brought her great sadness. She never thought she would have children, and now her life revolves around her children. Many women who have children will understand Ellie's feelings about her children growing older and needing her less.

This Ellie is more contemplative, more reflective about her life. She doesn't have to work so hard, she has more time to think. She met an older man, a music composer, on the train to Hollywood, and they continued their relationship in Hollywood.

Kerrigan's characters are so multi-dimensional, even the minor ones. Stan, the composer, loves Ellie, but he is not willing to pine for her if she will give him no chance. Freddie, the agent, is not some sleazy Hollywood type, but a young man with a goal and he becomes a part of Ellie's family. Even Freddie's actress-girlfriend, who could be a golddigger, is interesting.

Many times in trilogies, the main character remains stagnant from book to book. In Kate Kerrigan's Ellis Island series, we experience the growth and depth of Ellie from young girl desperately in love with her husband and willing to move to America to save his life, to grieving young widow who channels her grief by building a community for those in need to middle-aged mother who loves her children enough to give them their dreams and in turn find her own.

I read this book as an ARC, and totally forgot to write a review about it then. So, here is my short but sweet opinion. The story was a good read. The subject matters and events could hold your attention, but I had a hard time really getting past either the character personalities or the writing style.used to describe and develop them. Everyone seemed to be over dramatized and a little shallow in a way. And there was just way too much past and present comparisons for my taste. BUT like I said, the story was a good one.

It’s 1942 and sixteen year old Leo has run away from boarding school. Actually in his mind, he’s running to his chance to become famous and not away from home. A year before, he’d gone with his friend, Julian Knox, and stayed with Julian’s family in California. While Leo was there, he had been introduced to Freddie Dubois who is a talent scout for movie studios. Freddie handed Leo his card, promising he could make him a movie star. So, Leo takes off by himself by train cross country from Fire Island, NY to Los Angeles, CA. Ellie Hogan leaves her youngest son, Tom, with close friends and heads by train after Leo.

Ellie Hogan was a celebrity in her own right as an artist (Irish impressionist). When she realizes how disappointed Leo becomes if not allowed to audition for a part, she begins to think it doesn’t matter where they live. Leo hardly ever asks for anything. She can be an artist anywhere. Her best friend, Bridie, and her son, Tom, make their way out to join Ellie and Leo in Los Angeles, CA. She had been married twice; both John and Charles are deceased by the time she moves. Leo and Tom had both been adopted. She meets a few men while in Los Angeles. However, Stan, older and mature, is someone she finds very charming; he often found ways to help her.

This is more Ellie’s story than that of Leo and Hollywood glitz. Historically accurate, it conveys the early establishment of Hollywood studios and movie agents. The tagline for this novel had read, “In 1940s Hollywood, not all that glitters is gold…” However, I felt the Hollywood glitter was a bit glossed over. There was a lot of background about Ellie’s life in Fire Island including her marriages, the adoption of her sons, her art endeavors, and even her homosexual neighbors. We do see some of the effects of WWII in Hollywood. Ellie is a very strong woman with very liberal ideas for the 1940’s time frame. Land of Dreams was actually the third in a trilogy. The first two were Ellis Island and City of Hope. The background was complete enough that I didn’t feel I missed too much from the earlier two books. I rated Land of Dreams at 3 out of 5.

http://www.fictionzeal.com/land-dreams-kate-kerrigan/

This is the intriguing story of a very bright and talented young woman who is trying to raise her two children. It is unique in that they are not her biological children. It is the story of her life and friends and her experiences during the 1940s. I thought that this was a well written book with interesting characters that held my attention. It is not exactly action packed. It starts off slow, but then picks up. I think I read the whole book in 3 days. I was touched by part about Suri and the internment camp. I would like to see a whole book about this subject. It is interesting what this country did to Japanese American citizens. This is something you don’t hear much about.

I liked Ellie she is a strong woman and very independent for her time. Ellie doesn’t seem to show much remorse or reflection in regards to her actions through out the book. She did what she felt she needed to do and she did not look back. I enjoyed this book. I give this novel a 4 out of 5 stars.

3rd book in the series. I liked the part about early Hollywood but did not feel this one was as good as the first two.

This is the third book in Ms. Kerrigan's trilogy. I will admit I have not read the other two previous books, Ms. Kerrigan does help readers catch up with the events in this book with her constant references to what has occurred earlier. In summary, after Leo runs away from his boarding school, and ends up in Hollywood. His mother finds him in L.A, and then joins him. I must admit I struggled with this book because I found Ellie, arrogant, entitled, and over bearing. Although this is set in the 1940's, very little is focused on the issues during WWII, and the challenges that the world faced.½

A mother's determination to protect her son is the basis for the third book in the immigrant trilogy featuring Ellie Hogan as our protagonist. She leaves her artist haven on Fire Island to chase after her teenage son who has run away to Hollywood. Ellie creates a new home for her family in Los Angeles in support of her son's artistic endeavors. In spite of her doubts of the sallowness of the Hollywood environment, Ellie allows her child to grow and offers a safe harbor from any disappointments. This was an entertaining story of Hollywood in the early years of the forties and a glimpse into the workings of the powerful movie studios.

I enjoyed this book mainly because of the time era......the 40's. It described this era and Hollywood at it's best. A mother follows her sixteen year old son who has run away to Hollywood to become a movie star with the intention of bringing him back home to New York and boarding school. However when she finds him she realizes his dream is real and decides to stay in Hollywood and let him pursue his dream. The characters were strong and the story kept your attention.

It’s 1942 and twice-widowed Ellie Hogan’s teenaged son Leo has run away from boarding school. It doesn’t take much sleuthing to find out that he’s taken the train across country from New York to Los Angeles: to Hollywood. He’s determined that he will be a star. Ellie immediately jumps on a train and follows him, to discover him living with another young man, Freddie, who is trying to become the world’s first actor’s agent, and Freddie’s girlfriend, Crystal, who fancies herself a starlet. They are holed up at the Chateau Marmont, with little money and no jobs. Ellie allows herself to be convinced that Leo has a real chance at getting a part in an upcoming film, so she takes a room for herself and Leo and figures it’ll only be a few days before this nonsense is out of the way and they can head home. To her surprise, Leo gets a part and is put into acting classes at the studio. Stuck in California for the time being, Ellie rents a house and sends for her younger son, Tom, and her aging friend and housekeeper, Bridie, and settles in for a few months while the film is being shot. She ends up taking in Freddie and Crystal, mothering them just like she does her sons, even though this means they have taken over the room she’d designated as her artist’s studio. For Ellie, being a mother is the most important thing in her life- she admits that she married her second husband in large part so she could be a mother to his son Leo. She is willing to put her own life- both professional and personal- on hold for her sons, feeling that she doesn’t have enough time or love to go around. Whether this means quashing a relationship that seems to have a lot of potential or giving up her painting, she’s fine with it.

Ellie acts like a very entitled woman. She barges in everywhere and expects everyone to listen to her, whether it be a studio executive or the military head of a relocation camp where a Japanese friend of hers is interned. She comes by this trait not from being born into money; she worked her way up from nothing during the Depression. She just feels she has to do her best to try and help her friends and family- even when she doesn’t have all the information and they desperately do not want her to intervene.

The book jacket makes the story sound exciting: it mentions glamour and glitz and having to protect her family from the threat of the war. In reality, Ellie encounters the glitz only occasionally, and the war is little threat to her family, although her own actions make things difficult for both her Polish born boyfriend and her Japanese friend. The story really doesn’t have much action in it. Told by Ellie in the year 1950, a lot of it is backstory (this book is the third in a trilogy) and her emotions and thoughts. I found I could not get really interested in the book; I couldn’t make a connection with Ellie or any of the other characters. They were flat and not fleshed out. Bridie as the Irish housekeeper was very nearly a stereotype. I found myself impatient with the book, wanting to get it read and have it over with so I could go on to something more interesting There is also a (small) problem with some anachronistic language – ‘networking’ and ‘lifestyle’ weren’t used in 1950 that I know of- but that may have been fixed in the final edit.