What do you think?
Rate this book
Love Reconsidered: A Novel
When Aleen Riddick’s marriage falls apart after her eighteen-year-old daughter, Sunny, loses her beloved boyfriend in a tragic accident, they look to the dead boy’s father, grief-stricken Ted Hammand, to help them heal and redefine life. When shocking developments force them to confront those who deceived them, Aleen, Ted, and Sunny must decide if forgiveness will drive them back to the pain of the past or forward to a future of possibilities. Love Reconsidered is about families―their grief, guilt, compassion, love, forgiveness, and hope.
296 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2017
325 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis J. Piano
5 books17 followersPhyllis J. Piano spent more than 30 years as an award-winning corporate communications expert for some of the world's largest companies. She has somehow managed to maintain her sense of humor, love of writing, and her passion for life and the people she loves and cares about throughout it all. A world traveler, Piano has left the corporate world and has fallen back into the arms of her own first love…writing. She and her husband split their time between California, England and the Midwest. When she is not packing a bag, making artisan sourdough bread or cooking with lots of garlic, Piano is working on a screenplay and her next novel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
dnf
June 24, 2017[I received a free advance review copy in exchange for an honest review]
DNF @20%
A couple of pages in, and I couldn't really find any interest in the story or the characters. They felt one-dimensional. And the writing style didn't really grip me in any way.
DNF @20%
A couple of pages in, and I couldn't really find any interest in the story or the characters. They felt one-dimensional. And the writing style didn't really grip me in any way.
September 3, 2017
I was sent a free copy of this book from BookSparks for an honest review. This is a character driven book that involves two families suffering from grief, loss, anger, and resentment. Sunny is a teenager living with her parents Aleen and Durk. Her boyfriend, Stu, lives with his parents Gerrie and Ted. The book begins with Durk and Gerrie telling their respective families that they are in love and plan to be together. Stu storms out of his house and is in a fatal motorcycle accident. What follows next is how all the characters try to live with this tragedy. They also have to come to terms with the guilt and resentment with splitting two families apart because of Gerrie and Durk's affair and subsequent marriage. The characters are well written and the secondary characters are important in the story too. I did feel at times the dialogue was a bit stilted but overall I really liked the book and would recommend it. Looking forward to reading more by this author.
October 18, 2017
This is one of those reads, that left me feeling very content. It was filled with wonderful and important insights on love, forgiveness and grief. It is one of those reads that I will not soon forget.
October 19, 2017
My Disclaimer:
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review
What it’s about…
Two families are in shock and grieving for the death of Stu, a young man they all loved deeply. He was the son of two of them, Ted and Gerrie. And he was Sunny’s boyfriend, the love of her life. Her parents, Durk and Aleen were very fond of him as well.
He was killed in a freak accident following some shocking news by a young man named Vincent who is also trying to deal with the aftermath of it all.
How do they all deal with not only the shocking news that sent Stu running into the night but the pain of his death? How much can each one take before they break? Can any good come of all this?
Technical Tidbits…
The cover is exquisite with the pristine white background and the spill of scarlet rose petals looking like drops of blood. So vibrant!
The storyline is totally convoluted and amazing! I think this is the type of story we should always be expecting from Ms. Piano. I really don’t think she will ever write a simple story.
The characters were all wonderful. Totally rounded with good depth and real personalities. Each had realistic quirks and idiosyncrasies.
The pace was good, picking up at times to be rather frantic as the author threw things at us almost faster than we could process.
The tension stayed high throughout the whole book. I just kept waiting to see how this would all work out. I cried lots of tears along with the characters. I got mad at them a lot, too. And there were a few times that I was disappointed in one or two of them.
And this is where you STOP if you don’t want to see any SPOILERS…
The good, the bad, and the ugly…and how much it lit up my life… ✰✰✰✰✰
The beginning of the book had me totally fooled about how this was going to go. Ted, Stu’s father, seemed almost like he was gay. He’s playing house with his new place and has the two corgis now. He invites Sunny and Aleen over for the football games. Then he and Aleen get makeovers and go for counseling. He just seems gay sort of playing with the girls. But he’s not. It was totally misleading.
Sunny meets some friends at school and they create a study group. She gets really close to two of them, Dawn and Benjamin. She tells them the story of what happened with Stu and his parents and hers and they are very supportive of her. The study group evolves and each of the kids becomes part of each others’ families and really close. Eventually, Sunny begins to heal and she allows Benjamin in. He has been very patient with her, letting her know that he wants more than just friendship whenever she is ready. And eventually, she is ready.
I didn’t like Gerrie, she wasn’t a very likable person. She was all about her job and she seemed to be grumpy all the time. Gerrie went to the doctor and came home with the diagnosis that pulled everyone in and made them all have to work together. Her diagnosis makes everything sort itself out and helps everyone get over all the pain and anger. They had more to think about.
I don’t know how realistic this ending would be in today’s society. I keep thinking how it would work realistically. I don’t know if it would work or not, but it does make a really great ending to a book. I can’t recommend this to you enough!
Love Reconsidered is being released
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review
What it’s about…
Two families are in shock and grieving for the death of Stu, a young man they all loved deeply. He was the son of two of them, Ted and Gerrie. And he was Sunny’s boyfriend, the love of her life. Her parents, Durk and Aleen were very fond of him as well.
He was killed in a freak accident following some shocking news by a young man named Vincent who is also trying to deal with the aftermath of it all.
How do they all deal with not only the shocking news that sent Stu running into the night but the pain of his death? How much can each one take before they break? Can any good come of all this?
Technical Tidbits…
The cover is exquisite with the pristine white background and the spill of scarlet rose petals looking like drops of blood. So vibrant!
The storyline is totally convoluted and amazing! I think this is the type of story we should always be expecting from Ms. Piano. I really don’t think she will ever write a simple story.
The characters were all wonderful. Totally rounded with good depth and real personalities. Each had realistic quirks and idiosyncrasies.
The pace was good, picking up at times to be rather frantic as the author threw things at us almost faster than we could process.
The tension stayed high throughout the whole book. I just kept waiting to see how this would all work out. I cried lots of tears along with the characters. I got mad at them a lot, too. And there were a few times that I was disappointed in one or two of them.
And this is where you STOP if you don’t want to see any SPOILERS…
The good, the bad, and the ugly…and how much it lit up my life… ✰✰✰✰✰
The beginning of the book had me totally fooled about how this was going to go. Ted, Stu’s father, seemed almost like he was gay. He’s playing house with his new place and has the two corgis now. He invites Sunny and Aleen over for the football games. Then he and Aleen get makeovers and go for counseling. He just seems gay sort of playing with the girls. But he’s not. It was totally misleading.
Sunny meets some friends at school and they create a study group. She gets really close to two of them, Dawn and Benjamin. She tells them the story of what happened with Stu and his parents and hers and they are very supportive of her. The study group evolves and each of the kids becomes part of each others’ families and really close. Eventually, Sunny begins to heal and she allows Benjamin in. He has been very patient with her, letting her know that he wants more than just friendship whenever she is ready. And eventually, she is ready.
I didn’t like Gerrie, she wasn’t a very likable person. She was all about her job and she seemed to be grumpy all the time. Gerrie went to the doctor and came home with the diagnosis that pulled everyone in and made them all have to work together. Her diagnosis makes everything sort itself out and helps everyone get over all the pain and anger. They had more to think about.
I don’t know how realistic this ending would be in today’s society. I keep thinking how it would work realistically. I don’t know if it would work or not, but it does make a really great ending to a book. I can’t recommend this to you enough!
Love Reconsidered is being released
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
October 16, 2017
My full review can be found at http://www.tomesandtequila.com/2017/1...
Big thanks to Booksparks for sending me this book as part of their FRC2017 program!
Honestly, the description sounds a little like a soap opera...and at times, the book felt eerily similar to one. Or maybe I've read too many books recently with people grieving, but I don't think that's my issue with this book really. I've been racking my brain to figure out why I didn't connect with it, and I'll try to work my way through that for you, while being sensitive to the fact that this book is someone's baby.
I think a lot of my feelings stem from the dialogue, because I have read books with way more drama and coincidence than this book have, but haven't felt as schmaltzy. But the conversations between characters in Love Reconsidered felt unrealistic and at times overly saccharine sweet, even during arguments. It just didn't read realistic. So when you have a very optimistic character like Ted, he ended up coming off as more Ned Flanders from The Simpsons than a genuinely great guy. And this became a problem, because this is a highly emotional, dialogue heavy book...and the conversations between a heartbroken father and his philandering wife should tug at your heart, and not leave you analyzing your lack of feeling.
BUT...this book does have a few good things going for it. I loved how Ted and Aleen were there for each other, and forged a friendship that pushed each other to grow and get some good out of an extremely difficult situation. They realized that although they weren't the ones stepping out on their marriage, nothing happens in a vacuum...and so gently nudged each other to work on becoming the people they truly wanted to be in life. It showed a loving relationship between a man and a woman that stayed purely platonic, and was better for it.
So, not my favorite read of the year...but I find you get something out of every book you read. Even the ones that don't make your top 10. Dialogue is super tricky...and I think writing believable conversations has to be one of the hardest things when writing fiction. I believe it has to be a tweak, tweak and tweak some more task. And it's also probably extremely subjective, because everyone talks in a different fashion. So, what sounds normal to me may not sound normal to my neighbor. I'm an odd duck, and conversations in my house occasionally border on Whedonesque, so in the end my issues with dialogue might just be ME.
But, if you are in the market for a feel good, hope-filled dramatic book about getting over loss...maybe check this one out from the Library.
Big thanks to Booksparks for sending me this book as part of their FRC2017 program!
Honestly, the description sounds a little like a soap opera...and at times, the book felt eerily similar to one. Or maybe I've read too many books recently with people grieving, but I don't think that's my issue with this book really. I've been racking my brain to figure out why I didn't connect with it, and I'll try to work my way through that for you, while being sensitive to the fact that this book is someone's baby.
I think a lot of my feelings stem from the dialogue, because I have read books with way more drama and coincidence than this book have, but haven't felt as schmaltzy. But the conversations between characters in Love Reconsidered felt unrealistic and at times overly saccharine sweet, even during arguments. It just didn't read realistic. So when you have a very optimistic character like Ted, he ended up coming off as more Ned Flanders from The Simpsons than a genuinely great guy. And this became a problem, because this is a highly emotional, dialogue heavy book...and the conversations between a heartbroken father and his philandering wife should tug at your heart, and not leave you analyzing your lack of feeling.
BUT...this book does have a few good things going for it. I loved how Ted and Aleen were there for each other, and forged a friendship that pushed each other to grow and get some good out of an extremely difficult situation. They realized that although they weren't the ones stepping out on their marriage, nothing happens in a vacuum...and so gently nudged each other to work on becoming the people they truly wanted to be in life. It showed a loving relationship between a man and a woman that stayed purely platonic, and was better for it.
So, not my favorite read of the year...but I find you get something out of every book you read. Even the ones that don't make your top 10. Dialogue is super tricky...and I think writing believable conversations has to be one of the hardest things when writing fiction. I believe it has to be a tweak, tweak and tweak some more task. And it's also probably extremely subjective, because everyone talks in a different fashion. So, what sounds normal to me may not sound normal to my neighbor. I'm an odd duck, and conversations in my house occasionally border on Whedonesque, so in the end my issues with dialogue might just be ME.
But, if you are in the market for a feel good, hope-filled dramatic book about getting over loss...maybe check this one out from the Library.
September 13, 2017
Love Reconsidered is a must-read! It is obvious the author puts a little of her soul into every story she writes. Otherwise, the characters wouldn’t tug at the reader’s heart so. When a novel grabs me and carries me through every emotion, even on multiple reads, I know it’s a good one. After tragedy befalls them, these characters literally have to reexamine their lives and reconsider what love is to them in their new reality. There is at least one character we can all relate to in some way, and we can find hope along the path of heartbreak, loss, healing, and forgiveness this story takes us on.
August 31, 2017
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
Aleen Riddick's marriage falls apart after her daughter, Sunny, loses her beloved boyfriend in a tragic accident. Aleen looks to the boy's father to help both her and her daughter heal. Basic story nothing awesome. I finished reading even though it didn't grab me.
Aleen Riddick's marriage falls apart after her daughter, Sunny, loses her beloved boyfriend in a tragic accident. Aleen looks to the boy's father to help both her and her daughter heal. Basic story nothing awesome. I finished reading even though it didn't grab me.
July 15, 2017
Love Reconsidered is a wonderful story of love lost, love found, and the healing that's possible when the heart looks past grief and betrayal. The story is moving and well told. You'll be glad you read this book!
August 18, 2017
This book was a 'beach read'. The writing was very basic, but the storyline was interesting.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews