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Crazy in Love
In this acclaimed early novel New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice takes readers on an intensely moving journey through the intimate terrain of a rapturous marriage in sudden jeopardy-and follows one woman's courageous search to find her way when everything, even her heart, seems lost.... Georgie Symonds didn't think anything could shake her perfect marriage. She and Nick were meant for each other, everyone said so, and their life on the Connecticut shore, among Georgie's close-knit family, is picture-perfect. But lately Nick has been consumed with his job on Wall Street, and Georgie finds herself plagued with suspicions too awful to contemplate. To distract herself, she plunges into her work with the Swift Observatory, examining the stories of people whose lives have been changed by unexpected tragedy. But it's when a handsome stranger arrives on her doorstep that Georgie learns firsthand that when your dreams are in danger of collapsing, it's time to create new ones....
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
19 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
About the author
Luanne Rice
109 books3,154 followersLuanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-eight novels, translated into thirty languages. Rice often writes about love, family, nature, and the sea. Most recently she has written thrillers, including one based on a murder that affected her family. She received the 2014 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement in the Literary Arts category.
Connecticut College awarded Rice an honorary degree and invited her to donate her papers to the College’s Special Collections Library. They are archived in the Luanne Rice Collection.
Rice has also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from St. Joseph University in West Hartford, Conn.
Several of Rice's novels have been adapted for television. Her monologue for the play Motherhood Out Loud premiered at Hartford Stage and has been performed Off-Broadway in NYC and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
Rice is a Creative Affiliate of the Safina Center. She lives in southeastern Connecticut.
Connecticut College awarded Rice an honorary degree and invited her to donate her papers to the College’s Special Collections Library. They are archived in the Luanne Rice Collection.
Rice has also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from St. Joseph University in West Hartford, Conn.
Several of Rice's novels have been adapted for television. Her monologue for the play Motherhood Out Loud premiered at Hartford Stage and has been performed Off-Broadway in NYC and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
Rice is a Creative Affiliate of the Safina Center. She lives in southeastern Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
January 21, 2015
2.5 STARS
"Georgie Swift Symonds is crazy in love with her Wall Street lawyer husband Nickso ''crazy'' in fact, that she has paranoic fantasies that he is unfaithful, and she hounds him with obsessive suspicions. And, she so cherishes her familyher pugnaciously senile grandmother Pem; her TV-celebrity mother Honora; her sister Clare, brother-in-law Donald and two nephewsthat she spends much of her time dreading any change or loss in their close intimacy. The three generations of women and the men who have married into the clan live in a family compound on the Sound in Connecticut. Though she is childless and nearly devoid of domestic responsibilities, Georgie doesn't want a job that will remove her from the family nest. She conceives of a project she dubs the Swift Observatory: interviewing people whose lives have been radically altered by sudden tragedy. But try as she might to avoid it, change does come to Georgie and her family in unpredictable ways. Rice (Angels All Over Town) conveys the delights and pains of loving relationships with verve and charm, and she charts Georgie's deepening maturation with a sure hand, mingling humor and poignancy." (From Amazon)
I did not like this novel as much. I did not care for the characters or story.
"Georgie Swift Symonds is crazy in love with her Wall Street lawyer husband Nickso ''crazy'' in fact, that she has paranoic fantasies that he is unfaithful, and she hounds him with obsessive suspicions. And, she so cherishes her familyher pugnaciously senile grandmother Pem; her TV-celebrity mother Honora; her sister Clare, brother-in-law Donald and two nephewsthat she spends much of her time dreading any change or loss in their close intimacy. The three generations of women and the men who have married into the clan live in a family compound on the Sound in Connecticut. Though she is childless and nearly devoid of domestic responsibilities, Georgie doesn't want a job that will remove her from the family nest. She conceives of a project she dubs the Swift Observatory: interviewing people whose lives have been radically altered by sudden tragedy. But try as she might to avoid it, change does come to Georgie and her family in unpredictable ways. Rice (Angels All Over Town) conveys the delights and pains of loving relationships with verve and charm, and she charts Georgie's deepening maturation with a sure hand, mingling humor and poignancy." (From Amazon)
I did not like this novel as much. I did not care for the characters or story.
June 7, 2021
Main character clingy, insecure. Didn’t finish. Apparently other Rice books are better; may try this author again another time.
March 11, 2012
i fixed my books last night (for a photo shoot.. hahaha) and i realized that i have more than 10 luanne rice books.. ha! i guess i really like her books.. Crazy In Love is my third luanne rice for the month of march.. i’ll be moving on a new book tomorrow (hopefully Shooting Stars for my book club review)..
anyway, i liked this book, but not as much i did for the others.. Georgie Swift is a profiler who owns and manages Swift Observatory.. she interviews ordinary people who have extraordinary experiences.. she is married to Nick Symonds, a successful lawyer at Wall Street.. Nick and Donald, Georgie’s brother-in-law, commute via seaplane from connecticut to new york, while Georgie’s mother, Honora, a retired weatherwoman, worries about the tragedies that can befall them if the weather turns for the worst.. they have a tight family bond, including Donald, Clare’s husband..
the story was good, although some parts were really sad and unexpected (i.e. Honora’s death).. but i really find Georgie’s character quite irritating.. she spends half her time obsessing over how Nick’s coworker, Jean, might flirt and seduce her husband.. it’s like she didn’t trust her husband, or any men in particular, given their father’s history.. but her obsession and clingy attitude just really irked me.. and somewhere in the middle, she ended up kissing another man.. talk about hypocrisy.. but she was undeniably loyal as she readily confessed her fault.. i do love her job and how she helped people just by listening to them..
Nick, on the hand, is a dedicated lawyer.. he really loves his job that he might have hurt Georgie a little.. maybe he should have been more understanding, knowing about Georgie’s father.. although he changed quite a lot after Georgie became pregnant and Honora’s death.. he was quite cool and fiercely loyal when he forgave his wife’s mistake..
it just have enough drama and suspense to keep me entertained, but i just can’t get over Georgie.. the end was quite forceful in my taste, but if Ms. Rice wants a happy ending, who am i disagree? i’m not sure if i’ll be rereading this soon, maybe after some time again.. who knows, maybe next time my perception might be a little better and i might like it enough..
time to move on to the next book…
anyway, i liked this book, but not as much i did for the others.. Georgie Swift is a profiler who owns and manages Swift Observatory.. she interviews ordinary people who have extraordinary experiences.. she is married to Nick Symonds, a successful lawyer at Wall Street.. Nick and Donald, Georgie’s brother-in-law, commute via seaplane from connecticut to new york, while Georgie’s mother, Honora, a retired weatherwoman, worries about the tragedies that can befall them if the weather turns for the worst.. they have a tight family bond, including Donald, Clare’s husband..
the story was good, although some parts were really sad and unexpected (i.e. Honora’s death).. but i really find Georgie’s character quite irritating.. she spends half her time obsessing over how Nick’s coworker, Jean, might flirt and seduce her husband.. it’s like she didn’t trust her husband, or any men in particular, given their father’s history.. but her obsession and clingy attitude just really irked me.. and somewhere in the middle, she ended up kissing another man.. talk about hypocrisy.. but she was undeniably loyal as she readily confessed her fault.. i do love her job and how she helped people just by listening to them..
Nick, on the hand, is a dedicated lawyer.. he really loves his job that he might have hurt Georgie a little.. maybe he should have been more understanding, knowing about Georgie’s father.. although he changed quite a lot after Georgie became pregnant and Honora’s death.. he was quite cool and fiercely loyal when he forgave his wife’s mistake..
it just have enough drama and suspense to keep me entertained, but i just can’t get over Georgie.. the end was quite forceful in my taste, but if Ms. Rice wants a happy ending, who am i disagree? i’m not sure if i’ll be rereading this soon, maybe after some time again.. who knows, maybe next time my perception might be a little better and i might like it enough..
time to move on to the next book…
October 31, 2009
It is true that the most endearing stories are those that touch on the most ordinary subjects. This one is a perfect example – in it’s “ordinariness”, it elicits more empathy, and the audience is more captivated. Again, as in the other of Luanne Rice’s novels, I was able to easily relate to the Catholic background, the tight-knit families, and I must admit, to the character of Gerogie Swift who consciously gets suspicious of the goings-on between her husband and his female colleague. Though suspicious, she tried very hard to reason with herself as she knew there was no basis for her suspicions. I will probably never tire of Ms. Rice’s novels – the settings might all be the same ( Connecticut , Ireland ), the subject matter mostly about love, family, but the circumstances in her stories are never similar.
April 27, 2011
With a title like "Crazy in Love", I'm not sure what I was expecting. Love can make you crazy is what this author gets across in a very fine fashion, but also that it can and should prevail in the end. This story of Georgie Swift and her wonderful family had its ups and downs all through the book and facing each twist and turn is what keeps you coming back for more. Georgie finds herself dealing with every emotion that you could possibly think of. Jealousy, disconnectedness, brief and subtle outside attraction, painful loss, pride and confusion, overwhelming joy, and everything in between. This was a slow read for me, but in the end, I was very happy with how it concluded. Love and family is what matters most!!! My sentiments exactly!!!
March 10, 2010
This is actually the first Luanne Rice book I've ever read.
It was a fast read and a page turner.
And I am a sucker for happy endings.
But given my mood for the recent days, I didn't want a happy ending for this book. I admire Nick's perseverance in the travels, but I hated his job. He always had to stay away and it frustrated me. However, the photographer is another story. I liked his job, and he would make things easy for Georgie. However, that wasn't how the story ended.
I though like how close Georgie's family was. And I was hoping I had that too. :)
It was a fast read and a page turner.
And I am a sucker for happy endings.
But given my mood for the recent days, I didn't want a happy ending for this book. I admire Nick's perseverance in the travels, but I hated his job. He always had to stay away and it frustrated me. However, the photographer is another story. I liked his job, and he would make things easy for Georgie. However, that wasn't how the story ended.
I though like how close Georgie's family was. And I was hoping I had that too. :)
June 27, 2011
I generally like Luanne Rice, but this book was too lame for me. The main character was not crazy but obsessive in love. I couldn't really like her very much. She seemed to blame her mother for her insecurity and paranoia about infidelity and didn't take responsibility for her own issues. Luanne Rice fans could pass this one up easily and not miss anything.
December 14, 2020
Weird - not very good - not a very good plot - would be reluctant to read another book by this author.
April 17, 2024
No. Just no. Stopped reading after 100 pp. Just no. Nothing likable about this book. Rich fanatically obsessed people. Toxic relationships. No plot. No point.
The end.
The end.
January 9, 2018
This book was exhausting. I can usually read a Luanne Rice book in 1-3days, this one took me a week. I like that the focus was on family, but maybe this particular family needed to broaden their horizons. Georgie was so frustrating. I think part of that is that I saw a bit of myself in her. When I was newly married at 21 I always wanted to be around my husband, not so much that I was scared he would cheat, but I wanted to know what he was doing at all times and that he was safe. Georgie has been married eight years though. I really think she needed a good therapist, but that would have been so unnatural since they weren't family *sarcasm.
Luanne Rice is one of my favorite authors, She usually writes strong, though flawed, characters. In this case I didn't feel that any of the women were strong.
Luanne Rice is one of my favorite authors, She usually writes strong, though flawed, characters. In this case I didn't feel that any of the women were strong.
June 8, 2018
Rice does it again! In Crazy In Love, set in a quaint town in Connecticut on the Connecticut shoreline called Bennison Point, main character Georgiane "Georgie" Swift is the proud third generation of Bennison women on Bennison Point, Her mother Honora Swift, a former actress and doting mother of Georgie and sister Clare and caretaker of her elderly mother Pem smothers her daughters with her worrisome self and her distrust of men. This seed of resentment spill over into the marriages of her daughters, who each react in their own way. Georgie devotes her time to The Swift Observatory where she studies human nature. Her work expands giving her a chance to broaden her range and observe outside of her home turf but what will the price be/ and will it be worth it for Georgie. many twists in this moving novel as is common with a Luanne Rice novel.
July 11, 2022
*3.45
When I read this book, it made me really furious the first chapter of the book is not that really page-turner, the reason why it takes me too long to finish this book, but here I am complete but shattered?? lol. I'm on my half way giving up this book because it made me really furious, but luckily I give it a second chance and didn't expect it will turn out like that :(( I love Nick for being so green-flag and understandable to his wife, though I hate her I also love her for being so compassionate and she really loved her grandmother for real <33
When I read this book, it made me really furious the first chapter of the book is not that really page-turner, the reason why it takes me too long to finish this book, but here I am complete but shattered?? lol. I'm on my half way giving up this book because it made me really furious, but luckily I give it a second chance and didn't expect it will turn out like that :(( I love Nick for being so green-flag and understandable to his wife, though I hate her I also love her for being so compassionate and she really loved her grandmother for real <33
July 25, 2021
Georgie was obsessed with Nick -- to the point of making both of them crazy. This was a family so dependent on each other it was painful. The mother, the grandmother, the two daughters, the two grandsons. All living next door to each other!!!! Or actually together. And the grandmother had dementia. And it goes on from there. Neither of the daughters has a job outside the home. This was not your run of the mill family. Odd-ish. Not my favorite.
April 29, 2020
I usually find Luanne Rice's books compelling. This one just fell flat for me. Not sure what the plot was supposed to be. One woman's insecurities about life and love? Too much inner introspection and followed by stupid decisions
I admit I finally just skipped pages to get through it. I don't think I missed anything either.
I admit I finally just skipped pages to get through it. I don't think I missed anything either.
October 5, 2023
I kept reading this in the hopes it would get better. It didn't. This book was filled with characters that were so insecure. Not one of the female leads was strong and worth much time at all.
This is a book I wish I could've not finished. I need to do that more often without regret or guilt. Too many *good* books yet to read!
This is a book I wish I could've not finished. I need to do that more often without regret or guilt. Too many *good* books yet to read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2021
This is not Rice's best effort. The first chapter was especially bad--she names numerous people with no explanation of who they are or how they fit together. She does fix that in later chapters, but rest of the book is the narrator being self absorbed and distrustful.
May 6, 2024
Self absorbed protagonist, Georgiana Swift Symonds. I know this is a romance written in 1988, but the paranoid and clinging, family obsessed Georgi is irritating. Just not my style. I read it fast because I wanted to know how it turned out.
March 17, 2018
This was the first book that I have read by this author. I thought it was pretty good. At times the book got a little slow but then the pace would pick up again and I would not want to put it down.
January 27, 2019
I didnt think this was going to be as good as it was. Now i cant wait to read the three others I have by her.
April 22, 2020
I thought it was a good read!
September 3, 2020
An enjoyable, light read. Involves three generations of women, grandmother, mother and 2 sisters, their relationship and how they deal with men.
February 19, 2022
i love luann rice but this was not her best. the main character was way to o wimpy and clingy and insecure, which i found off-putting. It just never really took off for me.
October 28, 2022
Slow and never really picks up. Only finished bc I’m trying to finish my reading challenge goal
July 30, 2023
The plot didn't take me where I thought it would go, ever. Georgianas character made me anxious. Easy to read.
August 4, 2023
Thought I could predict the story line on this one but I was wrong!!
January 21, 2024
Took me more than a few years to pick this started book that I had put aside and finally keep reading it and got it finished. Glad I finally finished it. It was an okay book. Well written.
November 25, 2024
It was ok.....just seemed to go on and on about nothing super exciting or suspenseful.
September 4, 2013
Crazy in Love by Luanne Rice
Georgia and Nick are the perfect couple. They live on the family compound.
Nick commutes via seaplane to work. He and 3 others work at Wall Street.
Seaside, CT maybe the binds are not so strong.
The grandmother has done and been doing some crazy things with paint around the house that is irreversible.
She secretly worked as a maid and saved the money for a surprise for Nick. He never suspects as he's so busy with billion dollar deals.
She was awarded grant money to study humans and make profiles. She did tell Nick and he's ok with her work.
Georgia has a lot of gossip and uncovers many family secrets.
She's used to going with Nick on some overseas business trips but lately he's told her she has to stay behind.
That causes her more stress and she faints when her mother is in the hospital with a heart attack and now she's pregnant and she needs to take care of her grandmother...
She's eager to tell Nick about the baby and he surprises her and Mark with his arm around her when he gets home. She tries to explain that he's got a crush on her and he's the photographer she's been using for work projects.
She realizes what her mother had done for them all when she's hospitalized and when they can no longer care for the grandmother they put her in nursing care but what she realizes makes them do something drastic.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Georgia and Nick are the perfect couple. They live on the family compound.
Nick commutes via seaplane to work. He and 3 others work at Wall Street.
Seaside, CT maybe the binds are not so strong.
The grandmother has done and been doing some crazy things with paint around the house that is irreversible.
She secretly worked as a maid and saved the money for a surprise for Nick. He never suspects as he's so busy with billion dollar deals.
She was awarded grant money to study humans and make profiles. She did tell Nick and he's ok with her work.
Georgia has a lot of gossip and uncovers many family secrets.
She's used to going with Nick on some overseas business trips but lately he's told her she has to stay behind.
That causes her more stress and she faints when her mother is in the hospital with a heart attack and now she's pregnant and she needs to take care of her grandmother...
She's eager to tell Nick about the baby and he surprises her and Mark with his arm around her when he gets home. She tries to explain that he's got a crush on her and he's the photographer she's been using for work projects.
She realizes what her mother had done for them all when she's hospitalized and when they can no longer care for the grandmother they put her in nursing care but what she realizes makes them do something drastic.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
November 13, 2013
My favorite scene in this book was when Pem killed herself with a gun and Honora brought her back to life using her magic wand. It was also...
Okay. None of what I just typed really happened in this book. In fact, not much really happened. There were no fight scenes (except when Clare and Georgie fought inside the bathroom while cleaning Pem's bum)or any other "action" in it. It showed nothing but simplicity of day to day life. And I believe that that is what made this book so beautiful.
Okay. Going back to my favorite part. My favorite part is when Georgie told Pem that she's pregnant. I'm telling the truth now. That part was very heartbreaking I had to stop reading the book for a while after that chapter.
This is an early Luanne Rice and I can really tell because it is very different from what I'm used to, but it was still beautifully written.
Er, what else. Umm,
Oh here:
"Aunt Gert told us about the origins of belly buttons, of how babies came out of an oven and God tested their soft tummies with his finger, saying, "You're done, you're done..."
---
"I love you." he said.
"I love you." I said.
We said more, but those were the words that mattered.
Okay. None of what I just typed really happened in this book. In fact, not much really happened. There were no fight scenes (except when Clare and Georgie fought inside the bathroom while cleaning Pem's bum)or any other "action" in it. It showed nothing but simplicity of day to day life. And I believe that that is what made this book so beautiful.
Okay. Going back to my favorite part. My favorite part is when Georgie told Pem that she's pregnant. I'm telling the truth now. That part was very heartbreaking I had to stop reading the book for a while after that chapter.
This is an early Luanne Rice and I can really tell because it is very different from what I'm used to, but it was still beautifully written.
Er, what else. Umm,
Oh here:
"Aunt Gert told us about the origins of belly buttons, of how babies came out of an oven and God tested their soft tummies with his finger, saying, "You're done, you're done..."
---
"I love you." he said.
"I love you." I said.
We said more, but those were the words that mattered.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews