Certain Girls: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Certain Girls: A Novel
Book Review: Better off never being written
Summary: 2 Stars
I was just really disappointed with this one. What happened to funny, wittie girl from the first book. And there was little about her friend Maxi, or Samantha. Her attempt to write like Jody Picoult with the alternating voices of mother and daughter, did not work. It was confusing at times and Joy was just plain spoiled rotten. The plot twist at the end was sad and a huge let down plus the mother and daughter relationship was not really repaired with any kind of understanding that Cannie finally got her child at all. If you want to read it, and you probably will, check it out at the library.Book Review: Bittersweet
Summary: 4 Stars
I was very excited when I heard that this book was coming out. While it isn't completely like chick lit, I was still entertained by the story even when I wasn't too sure about it in the very beginning.
My biggest annoyance with the storyline is that it didn't line up with 'Good In Bed' in some of the details. Like a line where Cannie talks about climbing up three floors to her apartment, but if you read 'Good In Bed' then you would know that her apartment was moved to the bottom floor...and there wasn't an indication of it being a new apartment. Those tiny details were few and far between, but if you read 'Good In Bed' again before reading this book, that was how I found small things like that.
The book still made me connect with the character(s) and you have to read it from the perspective that Cannie isn't in her late 20's anymore, but in her early 40's. I still laughed at the wit in the book and cried at the end. I did feel like the end was rushed a bit, since the rest of the story is fairly detailed, but the ending came quick and bittersweet.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and wonder if another book will continue the story, basically it did leave me wanting more in a good way.
Book Review: Bummer of a book
Summary: 2 Stars
I loved Good in Bed when it came out years ago and I was excited to see the sequel but I was very disppointed. In spite of a healthy child, a wonderful partner and a pretty easy life in the 'burbs, Cannie is still obseesed with her weight and her looks in general. It is really tedious "listening" to her on this subject. Her daughter is a whiny brat. Yes, she is 13, but not in any way sympathetic. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters in this humourless story. The one character who doesn't annoy doesn't survive! Heavens, what was the point of that? Do Cannie and her child grow or improve at all through this sludge? Nope. I nearly abandoned this book about 1/3 of the way through but persevered and really wish I hadn't. If you loved Good in Bed, I suggest you leave the story there.
Book Review: CERTAIN GIRLS is an absorbing read and the perfect escape story.
Summary: 5 Stars
Cannie Shapiro, who won readers' hearts in Jennifer Weiner's first novel GOOD IN BED, returns in the page-turning sequel CERTAIN GIRLS.
Cannie is settled into her long and happy marriage with her diet doctor husband, Peter Krushelevansky. She spends her days churning out science fiction books, written under a pen name. Her debut, a highly fictionalized and incredibly sexy bestseller based on her own life, was way too much of a sensation when it was published many years ago; she is not going through that kind of a media buzz again. Meanwhile, she knits, gardens and plans meals, but mostly her focus is on being the best mother she can possibly be to her beloved 12-year-old, Joy. Joy's biological father is Bruce Guberman (who once wrote a piece for a national women's magazine titled "Loving a Larger Woman," about his and Cannie's love life). Bruce is in Joy's life, but her true father is the warm and wonderful Peter.
Cannie's life is shaken a bit as Joy's grades falter. Joy contributes her story as well, and we learn that the seventh-grader is self-conscious about the hearing aids she requires, frequently not wearing them at school. Peter rocks Cannie's world further when he announces that, in spite of Cannie's hysterectomy after Joy's birth, he believes they should find a surrogate mother and have a baby of their own.
Meanwhile, Joy finds herself unaccountably popular at school. Normally, she hangs with her friends, twins Tamsin and Todd. But the most popular girl at school, Amber Gross, suddenly asks Joy to sit with her and her friends at lunchtime. Despite Tamsin's displeasure, she can't resist the siren call to join Amber's clique in the cafeteria, where she finds herself sitting right next to her crush, Duncan Brodkey. Joy is ecstatic --- until she learns that her popularity is sparked by her mother's friendship with a famous actress.
Joy's new friends also discuss BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY, which her mother wrote years ago. Cannie has protected Joy from the book, forbidding her to read it. Now Joy feels compelled to disobey Cannie's order, and her world is turned upside down. It is, as Duncan says, "hot stuff," which makes Joy uncomfortable. But she also discovers that when the book's heroine unhappily finds herself pregnant, the baby's father leaves. All of a sudden, Joy wonders about the truth behind the book. Didn't Cannie want her?
CERTAIN GIRLS is an absorbing read and the perfect escape story. While rediscovering Cannie feels like catching up with an old warm-hearted, witty best friend, readers will also relate to Joy's preteen angst as she struggles to find her place in the world. Jennifer Weiner leaves us with a tantalizing taste of Cannie and Joy's future. Dare we hope for another sequel?
Book Review: Can Cannie keep her Perfect Life?
Summary: 4 Stars
Can the heroine of Good in Bed, Cannie Shapiro, screw up her happily ever after life, where she is married to the handsome doctor Peter Krushelevansky and is the mother of a her daughter Joy? Especially since Joy is now a teenager and Shapiro's perfect husband wants to expand their perfect family?