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The Godmothers #7
Far and Away
All three of the Godmothers novellas together for the very first time!
Old friends reunite for an adventure unlike any they’ve faced before in the latest novel by beloved storyteller and #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.
As Sophie De Luca has learned, many things really are better the second time around, whether that’s a wonderful year of marriage with Goebel, her sweet second husband, or strengthening her bonds with childhood friends Toots, Ida, and Mavis.
Yet ever since she and Goebel moved into their new home, Sophie has sensed something a little . . . unusual. Old houses often contain items left behind from previous owners, but what remains in this case is a painful secret. Facing this past presents a special kind of challenge, but with her three extraordinary friends by her side, Sophie is ready to confront a terrible wrong that occurred within the house decades ago. And, just maybe, each of the lifelong friends will get the chance to claim a sweet, surprising future chiming with wedding bells when the task is done . . .
Praise for Fern Michaels and The Godmothers Series
“Whoever thought the ‘golden years’ were boring never met the Godmothers.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Michaels’ engaging version of the Golden Girls.”
—Booklist
Old friends reunite for an adventure unlike any they’ve faced before in the latest novel by beloved storyteller and #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.
As Sophie De Luca has learned, many things really are better the second time around, whether that’s a wonderful year of marriage with Goebel, her sweet second husband, or strengthening her bonds with childhood friends Toots, Ida, and Mavis.
Yet ever since she and Goebel moved into their new home, Sophie has sensed something a little . . . unusual. Old houses often contain items left behind from previous owners, but what remains in this case is a painful secret. Facing this past presents a special kind of challenge, but with her three extraordinary friends by her side, Sophie is ready to confront a terrible wrong that occurred within the house decades ago. And, just maybe, each of the lifelong friends will get the chance to claim a sweet, surprising future chiming with wedding bells when the task is done . . .
Praise for Fern Michaels and The Godmothers Series
“Whoever thought the ‘golden years’ were boring never met the Godmothers.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Michaels’ engaging version of the Golden Girls.”
—Booklist
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2019
923 people are currently reading
2861 people want to read
About the author
Fern Michaels
429 books6,571 followersFern Michaels isn’t a person. I’m not sure she’s an entity either since an entity is something with separate existence. Fern Michaels® is what I DO. Me, Mary Ruth Kuczkir. Growing up in Hastings, Pennsylvania, I was called Ruth. I became Mary when I entered the business world where first names were the order of the day. To this day, family and friends call me Dink, a name my father gave me when I was born because according to him I was ‘a dinky little thing’ weighing in at four and a half pounds. However, I answer to Fern since people are more comfortable with a name they can pronounce.
As they say, the past is prologue. I grew up, got a job, got married, had five kids. When my youngest went off to Kindergarten, my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother. I was also a voracious reader having cut my teeth on The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and the like. The library was a magical place for me. It still is to this day. Rather than face the outside world with no skills, I decided to write a book. For some reason that didn’t intimidate me. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more. Guess what else! I wrote 99 books, most of them New York Times Best Sellers.
Moving right along here . . . Several years ago I left Ballantine Books, parted company with my agent, sold my house in New Jersey that I had lived in all my married life and in 1993 moved to South Carolina. I figured if I was going to go through trauma let it be all at one time. It was a breeze. The kids were all on their own at that point. The dump was a 300 year old plantation house that is listed in the National Registry that I remodeled. Today it is beyond belief as are the gardens and the equally old Angel Oaks that drip Spanish moss. Unfortunately, I could not get my ghost to relocate. This ghost has been documented by previous owners. Mary Margaret as we call her, is “a friendly”. She is also mischievous. It took me two weeks to figure out that she didn’t like my coffee cups. They would slide off the table or counter or else they’d break in the dishwasher. I bought red checkered ones. All are intact as of this writing. She moves pillows from one room to the other and she stops all the clocks in the house at 9:10 in the a.m. at least once a week. When the Azaleas are in bloom, and only then, I find blooms on my night stand. I have this glorious front porch and during the warm months I see my swing moving early in the morning when the air is still and again late in the day. She doesn’t spook the dogs. I always know when she’s around because the five of them line up and look like they’re at a tennis match. As of this writing we’re co-habiting nicely.
Most writers love what they do and I’m no exception. I love it when I get a germ of an idea and get it down on paper. I love breathing life into my characters. I love writing about women who persevere and prevail because that’s what I had to do to get to this point in time. It’s another way of saying it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what matters is where you’re going and how you get there. The day I finally prevailed was the day I was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. For me it was an awesome day and there are no words to describe it.
I’ve been telling stories and scribbling for 37 years. I hope I can continue for another 37 years. It wasn’t easy during some of those years. As I said, I had to persevere. My old Polish grandmother said something to me when I was little that I never forgot. She said when God is good to you, you have to give back. For a while I didn’t know how to do that. When I finally figured it out I set up The Fern Michaels® Foundation.
READ FERN MICHAELS' FULL BIOGRAPHY HERE: http://www.fernmichaels.com/biography/
As they say, the past is prologue. I grew up, got a job, got married, had five kids. When my youngest went off to Kindergarten, my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother. I was also a voracious reader having cut my teeth on The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and the like. The library was a magical place for me. It still is to this day. Rather than face the outside world with no skills, I decided to write a book. For some reason that didn’t intimidate me. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more. Guess what else! I wrote 99 books, most of them New York Times Best Sellers.
Moving right along here . . . Several years ago I left Ballantine Books, parted company with my agent, sold my house in New Jersey that I had lived in all my married life and in 1993 moved to South Carolina. I figured if I was going to go through trauma let it be all at one time. It was a breeze. The kids were all on their own at that point. The dump was a 300 year old plantation house that is listed in the National Registry that I remodeled. Today it is beyond belief as are the gardens and the equally old Angel Oaks that drip Spanish moss. Unfortunately, I could not get my ghost to relocate. This ghost has been documented by previous owners. Mary Margaret as we call her, is “a friendly”. She is also mischievous. It took me two weeks to figure out that she didn’t like my coffee cups. They would slide off the table or counter or else they’d break in the dishwasher. I bought red checkered ones. All are intact as of this writing. She moves pillows from one room to the other and she stops all the clocks in the house at 9:10 in the a.m. at least once a week. When the Azaleas are in bloom, and only then, I find blooms on my night stand. I have this glorious front porch and during the warm months I see my swing moving early in the morning when the air is still and again late in the day. She doesn’t spook the dogs. I always know when she’s around because the five of them line up and look like they’re at a tennis match. As of this writing we’re co-habiting nicely.
Most writers love what they do and I’m no exception. I love it when I get a germ of an idea and get it down on paper. I love breathing life into my characters. I love writing about women who persevere and prevail because that’s what I had to do to get to this point in time. It’s another way of saying it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what matters is where you’re going and how you get there. The day I finally prevailed was the day I was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. For me it was an awesome day and there are no words to describe it.
I’ve been telling stories and scribbling for 37 years. I hope I can continue for another 37 years. It wasn’t easy during some of those years. As I said, I had to persevere. My old Polish grandmother said something to me when I was little that I never forgot. She said when God is good to you, you have to give back. For a while I didn’t know how to do that. When I finally figured it out I set up The Fern Michaels® Foundation.
READ FERN MICHAELS' FULL BIOGRAPHY HERE: http://www.fernmichaels.com/biography/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
August 5, 2023
I found out that this was the final book of the series, so I quit looking for others. The author finished everyone’s story pretty much. This particular book was a little too serious, compared to the other books in the series. The series overall was excellent and I will check out more of her books.
May 9, 2024
Glad to have finished, one of the more ridiculous series I have read.
June 13, 2019
Maybe it's just me but this book was a disappointment. I will leave it at that.
May 29, 2019
Over the years I have read many Fern Michaels books and trust her to tell a good story with a mystery to solve. So I was quite surprised that I did not enjoy this book at all. I kept reading, thinking it would get better, or I would get over it. Finally I realized, I just did NOT LIKE THE MAIN CHARACTERS. They are not people I would like or put up with in real life, so why would I want to read about them?
They are rude. They are constantly smoking and swearing. The prose was even as choppy as their personalities. This is one series I will not be pursuing further.
They are rude. They are constantly smoking and swearing. The prose was even as choppy as their personalities. This is one series I will not be pursuing further.
February 24, 2021
I'm on the fence between a two and three-star review but "I liked it" in the end (though "it was okay" in parts). My mother is a long-time romance novel reader (also a sci-fi and fantasy reader, and occasional mystery/thriller reader). She's read everything from historical fiction ("bodice-rippers") to Hallmark serials that she got from my father's late aunt who got them from her neighbor who actually subscribed and got boxes of them by mail. I first read Kathleen Woodiwiss and Joanna Lindsey thanks to my mom. So when she gushed about Fern Michaels I filed the name away. Even though she is a gentler reader than me, if she says an author writes well then it's a good sign. I picked this up from a sale table at BJ's (like Costco in New England) as I noticed the name. I have not read the (many) earlier books in the series and you don't need to. This is a ghost story, rather than a romance (it seems the romance mostly happened in the earlier books). The characters are all retired (so early retirees - maybe 60's?) and wealthy, or reasonably wealthy - but come-from-nothing wealthy, so they curse at each other at times (which to be honest felt very strange) and not snobby. I inferred that the five women (plus a daughter) have each had their romance as a focus in a previous novel in the series. One of the women is a psychic, and the ghost is haunting the new house she lives in with her relatively new husband. They have a lovely husband and wife relationship, and in general the women's friendships are fun, and I had a weakness for the Florida setting during winter in Massachusetts. I couldn't recommend this book to everyone, but if you're a fan of the series I'm sure you'll enjoy the company of the characters again. And if you are looking for something frivolous and fluffy I wouldn't discourage you from reading it. It probably wasn't the best introduction to this author, but she does write reasonably well and I'd try her again (maybe with more thought beforehand).
March 17, 2022
My least favorite in the series but it did have a happy ending! Not really into the supernatural so was surprised that this book focused on Sophie and her abilities.
This is a combination of the three (3) novellas that were written. All three novellas comprise "Far and Away" each book picks up where the other left off.
So we have Sophie investigating the haunting of her own house and a ghost who lived centuries ago! The history of the house and it's owners was very interesting and I would have liked more of that.
But the narrator who read this book, wasn't the same one who narrated all the previous books. She had some of the voices correct but the voices she had for Ida & Bernice were awful.
Overall, it was worth it to have an real ending to the Godmother's series and a HEA but maybe the author could've waited until she had a better idea to sum it up. I really liked those characters and will miss them. I searched and found out there's a Christmas story that they are featured in along with the Sisterhood. Can't wait until the holidays.
This is a combination of the three (3) novellas that were written. All three novellas comprise "Far and Away" each book picks up where the other left off.
So we have Sophie investigating the haunting of her own house and a ghost who lived centuries ago! The history of the house and it's owners was very interesting and I would have liked more of that.
But the narrator who read this book, wasn't the same one who narrated all the previous books. She had some of the voices correct but the voices she had for Ida & Bernice were awful.
Overall, it was worth it to have an real ending to the Godmother's series and a HEA but maybe the author could've waited until she had a better idea to sum it up. I really liked those characters and will miss them. I searched and found out there's a Christmas story that they are featured in along with the Sisterhood. Can't wait until the holidays.
August 7, 2024
This story contains a cast of characters you are likely not to forget. There are four girlfriends that are now each 70 years old. One is married and has the ability to get in touch with those who have passed on. Sophie has been married to Goebel for a year. They have an endearing relationship. This eccentric group, along with their boyfriend's, come together to help one another and solve a mystery.
This is a quick read. It's actually the seventh book in a series, but there is no need to know anything about the other books. This stands well on its own. The story gives enough details so you understand the personalities and the nuances of the friendship.
For me, I didn't feel the fresh use of language was needed. I understand it was part of the characters' upbringing and personality, but it's just not my preference.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I had no expectations, I'd pick this up at the library. It was a fun surprise.
This is a quick read. It's actually the seventh book in a series, but there is no need to know anything about the other books. This stands well on its own. The story gives enough details so you understand the personalities and the nuances of the friendship.
For me, I didn't feel the fresh use of language was needed. I understand it was part of the characters' upbringing and personality, but it's just not my preference.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I had no expectations, I'd pick this up at the library. It was a fun surprise.
August 18, 2019
I received Far and Away from the The Godmothers series by Fern Michaels as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program. I have never read any books from this series before but quickly caught on to the story and the characters. I always appreciate books that are part of a series that are easily read as a stand alone book. This is the story of four best friends- friends from childhood- Sophie, Toots, Ida, and Mavis. When Sophie encounters a spirit in the house that she recently moved into, the friends band together to determine the source.
Michaels tells a great story with very relateable characters that readers will easily fall in love with. And even though there are a lot of characters in the story, readers are not overwhelmed and are able to follow the storylines pretty easily. Loved the flashbacks to how the friends first met, which all the more makes these great characters.
Michaels tells a great story with very relateable characters that readers will easily fall in love with. And even though there are a lot of characters in the story, readers are not overwhelmed and are able to follow the storylines pretty easily. Loved the flashbacks to how the friends first met, which all the more makes these great characters.
August 3, 2019
Will miss them!!!
I have enjoyed this series of books I have laughed and cried with them I also went to Catholic school so it is relateable for me. Maybe do a series on Chris and Abby and the twins. Fern Michael's is one of my favorite authors so she will reconsider ending the ladies story they have so much more living to do and they bring joy, laughter tears and life to people me that live thru these stories. I will keep reading all the other books you write into Hot shot and into the ladies of the sisterhood. Keep up the good work.
I have enjoyed this series of books I have laughed and cried with them I also went to Catholic school so it is relateable for me. Maybe do a series on Chris and Abby and the twins. Fern Michael's is one of my favorite authors so she will reconsider ending the ladies story they have so much more living to do and they bring joy, laughter tears and life to people me that live thru these stories. I will keep reading all the other books you write into Hot shot and into the ladies of the sisterhood. Keep up the good work.
September 20, 2019
This was the first book I read in this series.it is about four friends who work
Together to exercise a Ghost from the house that Sophie and her husband
Bought and moved into. The story goes from the present to the past and
as they must decide how to tell the ghost to leave them alone. These
Friends are there for each other and the families. I did not enjoy this
Story as much as other books she wrote. It is an easy fast read.
Together to exercise a Ghost from the house that Sophie and her husband
Bought and moved into. The story goes from the present to the past and
as they must decide how to tell the ghost to leave them alone. These
Friends are there for each other and the families. I did not enjoy this
Story as much as other books she wrote. It is an easy fast read.
May 27, 2019
According to a letter to readers of this book ,it is the final book about the Godmothers. This book contains three e-novellas - Hideaway, Spirited Away and Getaway. The book is set in Charleston and the story is about the house that Sophie and Goebel live in. It seems there is an evil spirit in the house and Sophie must get rid of it. The book was a quick easy read.
July 13, 2019
I absolutely loved this final addition of The godmother series! I never wanted it to end! I have read every book in this series and if it had to end Fern Michaels did it perfectly! I must say I paced myself to enjoy every page of this book. I will miss these lovely ladies! Great ending! A must read book!
August 1, 2019
Really?
I usually love Fern Michaels books, but this book was disappointing. In a disjointed and very weird story of the paranormal, it did not make much sense. And it was repetitive of other Godmother books. I look forward to the next Sisterhood book so that I can enjoy her wonderful writing style. I may not buy another Godmother book.
I usually love Fern Michaels books, but this book was disappointing. In a disjointed and very weird story of the paranormal, it did not make much sense. And it was repetitive of other Godmother books. I look forward to the next Sisterhood book so that I can enjoy her wonderful writing style. I may not buy another Godmother book.
October 9, 2019
i'm giving this a 3 because I love Fern Michaels. The sisterhood series is still my favorite and I did enjoy the other Godmother series but this one was a bit hard to swallow. it was very far fetched and the characters are getting old, literally & figuratively....happy ever ending wrap up but it took too long to get there......
September 1, 2021
Godmothers 7
These ladies are unbelievable! They are wealthy but spend lots of money supporting the things that matter! The four special friends, from the 7th grade and for 60 years, have lived lives like most people would never no. That never stopped them though! If you get in the way you are going to get run over!!!
These ladies are unbelievable! They are wealthy but spend lots of money supporting the things that matter! The four special friends, from the 7th grade and for 60 years, have lived lives like most people would never no. That never stopped them though! If you get in the way you are going to get run over!!!
September 7, 2019
A good, easy, light-headed read. I love how these ladies have been friends for almost 70 years and can be super sarcastic, flip each other off and with no hurt feelings. The minute one needs the others, these ladies are there in an instant. That isn’t that common these days.
December 6, 2019
I have read this author before and usually enjoy, but I did not care for this book. It had a bizarre feel to it and I didn't like the characters. The writing felt disorganized, and there should have been more to the back story instead of two chapters.
December 10, 2019
I am not normally a fan of the supernatural since I am a night time reader. It took my picking it up a second time to finish the greater part of the book. The determined, yet caring behavior of the "godmothers" lent a logical air to resolving the problem from decades earlier with the usual HEA.
October 20, 2021
Last book of the "Godmothers" series. Everything wrapped up nicely ... sorry to see it end, but there wasn't much else that could have been done!! How about a spin-off of Sophie & Goeble and their paranormal adventures???
April 24, 2022
Always fun to spend time with the ladies in Charleston and follow their antics and escapades. This one was a little further out there with some of the storyline making it my least favorite of the series, but I enjoyed it regardless. Wondering if there will be more to come.
April 24, 2023
I read all of the Godmother series by Fern Michaels. The first three were paperbacks and the rest on Kindle. I loved them all. I couldn't put them down until I read every word. It took me a total of six weeks
July 28, 2025
Any Poeppel’s stories begin with a certain level of chaos. The fun is in reading how she resolves all of these issues in the course of a generally lighthearted read that leaves one happy & satisfied.
May 10, 2019
Riviting
May 11, 2019
3.75 I enjoy this series..not as well as Sisterhood series..but FM still has her famous “ gotcha” style for those that ‘ done you wrong”.
May 27, 2019
The 4 best friends are at it again. Sophie house is haunted. Wil she and the others find out what the problem is and how to remove the trapped spirit?
June 4, 2019
Outstanding book series with fantastic mystery
August 10, 2019
Excellent book!!!
August 20, 2019
I received this book from Goodreads Giveaways.
This book is a very easy read. Very lighthearted but just okay for me.
This book is a very easy read. Very lighthearted but just okay for me.
September 14, 2019
Nice story. A little far fetched
September 27, 2019
Best Fern Michaels book I've read in quite some time. Not bad as a ghost either.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews