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Plain Jane
A fan-favorite classic Fern Michaels novel, beautifully repackaged for fans old and new.
Back in college, Jane Lewis would have given anything to be like homecoming queen Connie Bryan. Instead, she was just Plain Jane--a painfully shy wallflower no one would remember. That was then. Today, a lovely and confident Dr. Jane Lewis has a thriving psychotherapy practice, her own radio talk show, a beautiful old Louisiana mansion, and her affectionate, nutty dog, Olive, to keep her company. The only thing missing is someone to share her life.
Jane has never forgotten Michael Sorenson, the boy she'd admired from afar in college. Now, he's inspiring her to hope for a future together. She's also never forgotten the brutal, unsolved attack that ended Connie Bryan's life--and haunts Jane still. Suddenly, the present collides with the past, as she finds clues into the identities of Connie's attackers--clues that send her into a world of risk and excitement, challenging her to become a truly extraordinary woman...if she dares.
Back in college, Jane Lewis would have given anything to be like homecoming queen Connie Bryan. Instead, she was just Plain Jane--a painfully shy wallflower no one would remember. That was then. Today, a lovely and confident Dr. Jane Lewis has a thriving psychotherapy practice, her own radio talk show, a beautiful old Louisiana mansion, and her affectionate, nutty dog, Olive, to keep her company. The only thing missing is someone to share her life.
Jane has never forgotten Michael Sorenson, the boy she'd admired from afar in college. Now, he's inspiring her to hope for a future together. She's also never forgotten the brutal, unsolved attack that ended Connie Bryan's life--and haunts Jane still. Suddenly, the present collides with the past, as she finds clues into the identities of Connie's attackers--clues that send her into a world of risk and excitement, challenging her to become a truly extraordinary woman...if she dares.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
1171 people are currently reading
2617 people want to read
About the author
Fern Michaels
427 books6,526 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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October 20, 2021Ghosts and Justice
This isn't what I expected when I ordered the book. It had mystery, ghosts, a totally hot hero and a wonderful heroine! Oh before I forget, it had dogs! I love when dogs are an important part of the book. We even have a ghost dog! Now there are lighthearted moments but this book starts with the rape of a young woman so if that is a trigger for you stay away. And then justice for that poor girl takes a long time but when it comes, it is wonderful. Jane was such a great character. She had some terrible childhood memories but I love how it shaped her into this amazing woman! Her friends Trixie and Fred are awesome too. I don't want to give much away, because I had zero expectations when I started reading this. And it wowed me. I bought it because she was one of my Mom's favorite authors. This one was definitely not cookie cutter romance, not even a true romance. It's a mystery with romance in it. And it is totally worth the read.
This isn't what I expected when I ordered the book. It had mystery, ghosts, a totally hot hero and a wonderful heroine! Oh before I forget, it had dogs! I love when dogs are an important part of the book. We even have a ghost dog! Now there are lighthearted moments but this book starts with the rape of a young woman so if that is a trigger for you stay away. And then justice for that poor girl takes a long time but when it comes, it is wonderful. Jane was such a great character. She had some terrible childhood memories but I love how it shaped her into this amazing woman! Her friends Trixie and Fred are awesome too. I don't want to give much away, because I had zero expectations when I started reading this. And it wowed me. I bought it because she was one of my Mom's favorite authors. This one was definitely not cookie cutter romance, not even a true romance. It's a mystery with romance in it. And it is totally worth the read.
November 7, 2016
DNF on page 104.
Ugh, what is it with me and books that seriously are not my cuppa? When I first started reading this one in the library, I thought that it had potential to be at least a somewhat entertaining read, but unfortunately it started rubbing me in all the wrong ways quite early on.
I could kind of live with the prologue and the heroine's acquaintance making the shitty decision of not reporting her rapists way back in 1988 because that was not the heroine's doing and she actually tried to encourage the silly girl to go to the police. But what I could not really live with, was the more contemporary setting of 2000, the heroine Jane working as a psychotherapist, her still not having gone to the police but keeping the evidence of the rape (what is it with that?) and all the more contemporary connections that keep popping up with one of her clients and also in her private life.
Also, what kind of a person says that they love dogs to the end of the world and forces them to be vegetarian?? Also, the same dog apparently bites the love interest Mike in the leg so that Mike starts bleeding but no-one cares enough to do anything about it. Like, really, they do NOTHING and downplay it a lot. What's up with that?
Maybe I'm seeing things a bit too much from my point of view but I find it very, very difficult to believe that anyone actually behaved like the heroine in this story 15 years ago. Maybe some quite old-fashioned people but it sounded so wrong when Jane and Mike themselves have premarital sex (I have no idea how that came about as I saw maybe 1% chemistry there), find themselves of thinking of having kids after they've been having said premarital sex for 2 weeks, but also chastise a mother of a 16-year-old that no-one should jump between the sheets before marriage. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks that it's both kind of hypocritical and wrong?
I better go cleanse my palate with a reread of one of my favourites...
You can find both this review and more on my book blog The Book Challengers.
Ugh, what is it with me and books that seriously are not my cuppa? When I first started reading this one in the library, I thought that it had potential to be at least a somewhat entertaining read, but unfortunately it started rubbing me in all the wrong ways quite early on.
I could kind of live with the prologue and the heroine's acquaintance making the shitty decision of not reporting her rapists way back in 1988 because that was not the heroine's doing and she actually tried to encourage the silly girl to go to the police. But what I could not really live with, was the more contemporary setting of 2000, the heroine Jane working as a psychotherapist, her still not having gone to the police but keeping the evidence of the rape (what is it with that?) and all the more contemporary connections that keep popping up with one of her clients and also in her private life.
Also, what kind of a person says that they love dogs to the end of the world and forces them to be vegetarian?? Also, the same dog apparently bites the love interest Mike in the leg so that Mike starts bleeding but no-one cares enough to do anything about it. Like, really, they do NOTHING and downplay it a lot. What's up with that?
Maybe I'm seeing things a bit too much from my point of view but I find it very, very difficult to believe that anyone actually behaved like the heroine in this story 15 years ago. Maybe some quite old-fashioned people but it sounded so wrong when Jane and Mike themselves have premarital sex (I have no idea how that came about as I saw maybe 1% chemistry there), find themselves of thinking of having kids after they've been having said premarital sex for 2 weeks, but also chastise a mother of a 16-year-old that no-one should jump between the sheets before marriage. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks that it's both kind of hypocritical and wrong?
I better go cleanse my palate with a reread of one of my favourites...
You can find both this review and more on my book blog The Book Challengers.
September 10, 2010
4.5 stars for Trixie and the dogs. 3 stars for the Jane story which was most of the book, and it was enjoyable.
STORY BRIEF:
Jane is a successful psychiatrist with a radio talk show. She is trim and attractive now, but in her youth she was overweight and undesirable to the guys. When in college, she and Connie were attacked one night while walking home. Three men raped Connie while two men held Jane down. Afterwards Connie made Jane promise to keep this a secret because Connie was getting married soon and feared her husband wouldn’t want her if he knew. Jane kept the secret, and then Connie committed suicide. Jane kept Connie’s clothes from that night for DNA evidence but did nothing about it for the next 12 years. Now Jane has decided to do something and wants to learn the identities of the men. She meets Michael, also a psychiatrist, and a romance quickly develops. While growing up, Jane’s mother was mean and cruel to Jane and called her ugly. When Jane’s parents died early, Jane was cared for by her godparents Trixie and Fred. Trixie and Fred are successful coauthors of suspense novels. A police dog Flash was being retired, and Trixie took him home. There are a couple of ghosts who talk to Jane with interesting results.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I loved Trixie and Fred and their actions. They were eccentric and wonderful. They were secondary characters but the best part of the book. I loved how Trixie purchased a used police car with a siren, got a gun and hid drugs and money on her farm, so Flash could search and find them like he used to do at work. Flash appeared seriously depressed and missed his job, so Trixie recreated it. She would drive around her large farmland with the siren on, shooting her gun, and had Flash wearing his bullet proof vest. He was a changed dog. The Jane story was enjoyable. The book was more about interesting characters than romance.
The weak parts of the book: (1) Jane’s style of thinking and talking reminded me of a woman from the 1950’s. I’m not sure why that image comes to mind. She was smart, competent and always right – almost too perfect for me. (2) I would have preferred more relationship development. I didn’t see how Jane and Michael were growing to like each other. Michael almost seemed like an extra part – something added on. (3) How the rapists were discovered and what happened with them didn’t seem realistic, it was too easy and without much anger on their part. I would have liked more details about their prosecution and disruption to their lives. I wanted to observe more suffering and some remorse.
I’m sounding picky with these weaknesses. Not every book needs to cover every base. It’s just that they came to mind, that’s all. On balance I enjoyed the book.
DATA:
Story length: 339 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: about two. Setting: 1988 and 2000 Louisiana. Copyright: 2001. Genre: relationships fiction with mystery and a small amount of romance.
STORY BRIEF:
Jane is a successful psychiatrist with a radio talk show. She is trim and attractive now, but in her youth she was overweight and undesirable to the guys. When in college, she and Connie were attacked one night while walking home. Three men raped Connie while two men held Jane down. Afterwards Connie made Jane promise to keep this a secret because Connie was getting married soon and feared her husband wouldn’t want her if he knew. Jane kept the secret, and then Connie committed suicide. Jane kept Connie’s clothes from that night for DNA evidence but did nothing about it for the next 12 years. Now Jane has decided to do something and wants to learn the identities of the men. She meets Michael, also a psychiatrist, and a romance quickly develops. While growing up, Jane’s mother was mean and cruel to Jane and called her ugly. When Jane’s parents died early, Jane was cared for by her godparents Trixie and Fred. Trixie and Fred are successful coauthors of suspense novels. A police dog Flash was being retired, and Trixie took him home. There are a couple of ghosts who talk to Jane with interesting results.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I loved Trixie and Fred and their actions. They were eccentric and wonderful. They were secondary characters but the best part of the book. I loved how Trixie purchased a used police car with a siren, got a gun and hid drugs and money on her farm, so Flash could search and find them like he used to do at work. Flash appeared seriously depressed and missed his job, so Trixie recreated it. She would drive around her large farmland with the siren on, shooting her gun, and had Flash wearing his bullet proof vest. He was a changed dog. The Jane story was enjoyable. The book was more about interesting characters than romance.
The weak parts of the book: (1) Jane’s style of thinking and talking reminded me of a woman from the 1950’s. I’m not sure why that image comes to mind. She was smart, competent and always right – almost too perfect for me. (2) I would have preferred more relationship development. I didn’t see how Jane and Michael were growing to like each other. Michael almost seemed like an extra part – something added on. (3) How the rapists were discovered and what happened with them didn’t seem realistic, it was too easy and without much anger on their part. I would have liked more details about their prosecution and disruption to their lives. I wanted to observe more suffering and some remorse.
I’m sounding picky with these weaknesses. Not every book needs to cover every base. It’s just that they came to mind, that’s all. On balance I enjoyed the book.
DATA:
Story length: 339 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: about two. Setting: 1988 and 2000 Louisiana. Copyright: 2001. Genre: relationships fiction with mystery and a small amount of romance.
January 8, 2009
Ugh. Fern Michaels is sap queen. One part between two people basically goes like: "I love you. I've been dreaming about having kids with you." "Really? Me too! I love you, too!"
Blegh. And the tension about the central point of the plot-- good idea, just way too melodramatic in the conclusion. I like my denouments to be believable.
Blegh. And the tension about the central point of the plot-- good idea, just way too melodramatic in the conclusion. I like my denouments to be believable.
November 5, 2019
I felt obligated to finish this by the time I was halfway through it. Plain Jane caught my attention in the first few chapters but then became rather strange, very scattered, and annoying. The main character. Jane, became whiny and a bit full of herself. Overall, it was just a very average to below average read. I was anxious to finish it and move on to something different.
March 30, 2011
We were really enjoying this on the cd player but when we got about 3/4 of the way through it, Jane turned into a stupid twit and I was just yelling at the radio for her to knock it off. I can't even begin to think why she became to stupid. She was just annoying so don't read this one,
January 7, 2023
Listen, it's a personal pet peeve when people say this, but this book warrants it. If it was possible, no stars.
This is gonna sound weird and probably piss some people off but: screw this author and how she views and treats Rape. It's vile. This book, it's rape-centered plot devices, and Jane, are disgusting.
Jane is surrounded by victimized women and then constantly makes herself the victim.
When her wise advice of "just get over your rape and be happy again" doesn't work, shes the victim. And when other people tell her to get over it ('it' being literally nothing happening to her)? She has temper tantrums and bitch fits.
She constantly moans about "think about how I feel" then blames everyone else for her feelings and refuses to consider the other person. She wants infinite grace to be held for herself and takes every excuse to abuse everyone around her. Her attitude and actions are completely inexcusable to any person with two brain cells to rub together. At the very best, Jane is a selfish, self-serving, narcissistic bitch painted as a Saint like a pig wearing lipstick.
([I don't want to give spoilers, but the outcome of a certain character really highlights this, since Jane only knows them for a short time and is somehow disabled with grief over someone she doesn't really treat well to begin with])
Is this book about Jane or Trixie? Is it about ghosts, a suicide, dogs, or unbalanced Jane? This book is everywhere and nowhere. Not sure the author even knew what the point to any of this was, since it seems to change at least twice a chapter. (Also, on the topic of ghosts, talk to *any* writer in another genre and they will tell you to establish rules and stick to them. Wish someone had given this author this advice before hand).
All the characters in this novel are just... bad. Outrageous. Irritating. No people in real life are like this, or if they are, I pray I never have to interact with them.
None of the plot actually makes any sense. The ghosts literally only exist as a way for the author to insert the answer. It's clumsy and ham fisted. It is an interesting way to prove to the reader that the characters you wrote are capable of literally nothing (which is an interesting narrative approach). Entire plot lines are painstakingly introduced and talked through only to fade into thin air and have absolutely no conclusion or purpose (see: the book cover contest). There's just absolutely no point here, except "make Jane happy" -- except Jane is probably the single person who suffers the least in this book besides Trixie.
The dogs are written like people in the most uncomfortable way. Like, yeah, a dog can be trained to open doors and turn on lights and stuff, but these dogs walk around the place like humans. It's off-putting. Also, absolutely no dogs actually act like dogs (like Flash) in the book.
This one is more personal and it's probably just me but: goddamn to be conveniently rich. Throwing money at 18 different plot devices, some of which (like the book cover scene) are plotted for tens of pages and end up meaning absolutely nothing. Casually quitting after doing less than the bare minimum. Things just happen in this book, and the narrative explanation is easy wealth. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this I suppose, I just find it irritating and I'm already this far along in the book review so I might as well mention this too.
This is gonna sound weird and probably piss some people off but: screw this author and how she views and treats Rape. It's vile. This book, it's rape-centered plot devices, and Jane, are disgusting.
Jane is surrounded by victimized women and then constantly makes herself the victim.
When her wise advice of "just get over your rape and be happy again" doesn't work, shes the victim. And when other people tell her to get over it ('it' being literally nothing happening to her)? She has temper tantrums and bitch fits.
She constantly moans about "think about how I feel" then blames everyone else for her feelings and refuses to consider the other person. She wants infinite grace to be held for herself and takes every excuse to abuse everyone around her. Her attitude and actions are completely inexcusable to any person with two brain cells to rub together. At the very best, Jane is a selfish, self-serving, narcissistic bitch painted as a Saint like a pig wearing lipstick.
([I don't want to give spoilers, but the outcome of a certain character really highlights this, since Jane only knows them for a short time and is somehow disabled with grief over someone she doesn't really treat well to begin with])
Is this book about Jane or Trixie? Is it about ghosts, a suicide, dogs, or unbalanced Jane? This book is everywhere and nowhere. Not sure the author even knew what the point to any of this was, since it seems to change at least twice a chapter. (Also, on the topic of ghosts, talk to *any* writer in another genre and they will tell you to establish rules and stick to them. Wish someone had given this author this advice before hand).
All the characters in this novel are just... bad. Outrageous. Irritating. No people in real life are like this, or if they are, I pray I never have to interact with them.
None of the plot actually makes any sense. The ghosts literally only exist as a way for the author to insert the answer. It's clumsy and ham fisted. It is an interesting way to prove to the reader that the characters you wrote are capable of literally nothing (which is an interesting narrative approach). Entire plot lines are painstakingly introduced and talked through only to fade into thin air and have absolutely no conclusion or purpose (see: the book cover contest). There's just absolutely no point here, except "make Jane happy" -- except Jane is probably the single person who suffers the least in this book besides Trixie.
The dogs are written like people in the most uncomfortable way. Like, yeah, a dog can be trained to open doors and turn on lights and stuff, but these dogs walk around the place like humans. It's off-putting. Also, absolutely no dogs actually act like dogs (like Flash) in the book.
This one is more personal and it's probably just me but: goddamn to be conveniently rich. Throwing money at 18 different plot devices, some of which (like the book cover scene) are plotted for tens of pages and end up meaning absolutely nothing. Casually quitting after doing less than the bare minimum. Things just happen in this book, and the narrative explanation is easy wealth. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this I suppose, I just find it irritating and I'm already this far along in the book review so I might as well mention this too.
January 9, 2015
If you call the heroine of a novel "Plain Jane," one might expect her to have some other dynamic personality traits. Perhaps she's quirky or funny or brainy, but this Jane didn't seem to have any of those things going for her! She's an ugly duckling, turned...well, I'm not sure exactly. She is sometimes described as frumpy, yet other moments she sounds like a knockout. She tries to present herself as sassy, but it translates as snarky. She makes certain bold moves that seem unwise, yet falls apart in other situations. Jane is not clearly defined, physically or emotionally, making it difficult to imagine her in the scenarios that unfold.
Take this book for what it is: mediocre, easy reading.
Take this book for what it is: mediocre, easy reading.
May 4, 2013
Could not finish the book. As soon as a ghost came into the picture I was uninterested.
May 5, 2021
Great read! Wish this book was part of a series. Fern Michaels has written many great books
July 21, 2013
I've read this book before and have decided to revisit it as it has been awhile. I liked the book but at the same time found myself not liking Jane's character so much. She's a psychologist who is dealing with some past hurt over her mother and her lack of love and unkindness to her. She also was witness to a horrific rape of a young woman in college who had committed suicide a few days later. When a client comes on board who is there because he's having difficulty accepting the rape of his wife it brings back the horrible memories of that fateful night. Michael Sorenson, a young man and now a colleague, re-enters her life and she finds herself falling for him. I understand the difficulty she has with coming to terms with all that but at the same time she's childish and rude and is that way for so much of the book, especially to Mike. I found myself wishing Mike would drop her and move on. I really liked her Godmother and her frankness with Jane. I found myself cheering when Trixie finally lays into her.
November 30, 2017
В колежа Джейн би направила всичко, за да прилича на Кралицата на красотата Кони, а не възпълничкото невзрачно момиче, отдало се единствено на учене. До нощта, в която новата й приятелка е жестоко изнасилена пред нея,а след това се и самоубива. Няколко години по-късно Д-р Джейн Люис е преуспяла психиатърка. Среща Майк и двамата се влюбват. И всичко би тръгнало в посоката страстна любов и щастливо семейство, ако Джейн не намира нови доказателства за онази кошмарна нощ. Неин пациент е може би един от изнасилвачите на Кони (от него ме побиваха тръпки)...Замесени са хора с амбиции, с положение в обществото.
Обещаващ сюжет и интригуващо начало, което ме остави будна до малките часове! И в един момент в историята настъпка истински хаос и всичко "отива по дяволите". Появява се призрак, който обитава къщата на Джейн. Самата тя в един момент започва да се държи неадекватно.... Любовна история и романтични моменти няма, а незнайно защо книгата е преведена като "Трудна любов".Каква ти любов? Наистина жалко,началото беше страхотно.
Обещаващ сюжет и интригуващо начало, което ме остави будна до малките часове! И в един момент в историята настъпка истински хаос и всичко "отива по дяволите". Появява се призрак, който обитава къщата на Джейн. Самата тя в един момент започва да се държи неадекватно.... Любовна история и романтични моменти няма, а незнайно защо книгата е преведена като "Трудна любов".Каква ти любов? Наистина жалко,началото беше страхотно.
March 7, 2011
I'm discovering that I definitely like a plucky heroine. Give me Kinsey Milhone, Cree Black, Anna Pigeon, Stephanie Plumb, even the sometimes-anxious Kate Scarpetta. They are strong women and I enjoy their adventures. Plain Jane had a lot going for it. It's a combination mystery, tragicomedy, love story, ghost story, dog story and more. But I found the whiny, insecure heroine to be annoying. I felt the same way about Eat, Pray, Love - so many good elements but if our heroine bursts into tears one more time it becomes tough to fight the impulse to gag. Jane Lewis is, astonishingly, a psychiatrist. I hope her true love, also a shrink, does give her a good dose of the therapy she so clearly needs. I think my next couple of books will be nonfiction - I need something solid to clear my head after this one!
May 23, 2020
*some mild spoilers below*
The main character Jane was incredibly unlikeable. One, if you are going to write about mental health professionals, then know the rules. Jane consistently violated and trashed the ethics of maintaining the professional relationship and not becoming friends with clients, even when other appropriate professionals told her otherwise. (She is a psychiatrist.) This is not acceptable. Two, she was pretty terrible to Mike pretty much the whole time and, yet, they fell madly in love in a short time. Mike was a nice guy that she dumped on over and over again. He should have left her. Three, Jane repeatedly dumped on her ghost Billy and, yet, she cried like they were best friends when she allowed him to pass to the other side. Throughout the book, there were missing pieces that made the tidy ending difficult to fathom.
The main character Jane was incredibly unlikeable. One, if you are going to write about mental health professionals, then know the rules. Jane consistently violated and trashed the ethics of maintaining the professional relationship and not becoming friends with clients, even when other appropriate professionals told her otherwise. (She is a psychiatrist.) This is not acceptable. Two, she was pretty terrible to Mike pretty much the whole time and, yet, they fell madly in love in a short time. Mike was a nice guy that she dumped on over and over again. He should have left her. Three, Jane repeatedly dumped on her ghost Billy and, yet, she cried like they were best friends when she allowed him to pass to the other side. Throughout the book, there were missing pieces that made the tidy ending difficult to fathom.
August 27, 2023
I don’t know how this book got such high ratings. Avoid it if you can! The dialogue and character development were immature and childish. The main character was extremely unlikeable, annoying and WAY too full of herself. Most of the book had me rolling my eyes and saying, “Come on, that’s ridiculous!”
I wish I had stopped reading at the beginning, but I thought it would get better.
I wish I had stopped reading at the beginning, but I thought it would get better.
November 24, 2019
I think the idea behind the plot of this book was a good one. I just don't think it was developed as well as it could have been. The reader wasn't prepared fairly for the ending which seemed hurried to me.
September 21, 2016
OMG - what a terrible book. It had stilted dialogue, weak women and too many scenes with dogs. Do NOT waste your time. What has happened to Fern Michaels?
September 18, 2018
I really enjoyed the beginning but it started to get weird in the middle.
August 10, 2021
easy no brainer
September 16, 2021
Ghosts and a psychiatrist who makes constant poor emotional decisions. It was slightly entertaining but completely unbelievable.
Read
August 6, 2019Jane Lewis was attending LSU and she had stayed late at the college studying for finals just a couple of days prior to graduation. Connie Bryan came to her and asked if she could walk back to the dorms with Jane because it was late. They were attacked by 6 men and Connie was taken into the bushes and raped while Jane was held down. The one holding Jane told her that no one wanted her and called her Miss Piggy. Jane bit his hand to the bone trying to get free.
Jane had gained weight while attending college while Connie was the homecoming queen and was planning her wedding. Connie made Jane promise not to report the rape because she didn't want her fiancee to find out and break off their wedding plans. Connie killed herself two days later. Jane was torn up keeping her promise. She had taken pictures of Connie's injuries and kept her clothes from that night but she never turned them in or reported their attack.
Jane went on to graduate school and became a psychiatrist. It was now 12 years later and he had a client that made her remember Connie. The client had told her that he was married and having problems dealing with the fact that his wife had been raped. There was something about the story that didn't ring true. Jane had gone by his house and never saw a wife. She asked another dr. to sit in on one of her sessions with him to get his opinion on her client.
Mike Sorenson had gone to high school with Jane but he never paid attention to her then. Jane had been completely dominated by her beauty queen mother. Jane's mother had constantly told Jane that she wasn't good enough. Jane was taught to believe that she was plain and never enough. It was hard as a child to accept that her mother didn't want or love her. Jane was taken in by her godparents and they taught her what unconditional love was.
Her godparents were Fred and Trixie McGuire. They had lived in Rayne, LA for years and no one knew that they were murder book authors, T. F. Dingle. Jane had all their books and found out that Mike liked their books too.
Jane had become the psychiatrist at a local radio station and Mike was impressed. Jane was surprised to find out that Mike was really interested in her and they began dating. She had been dating the radio show director but knew nothing would come of it and told him so. She stopped dating him once she was asked out by Mike. Mike first came to her house when Jane told him that she had ghost at her house. A young boy had fallen in to a well on her property and his spirit had not left.
Mike and Jane grew closer over the next few months. Mike met Brian Ramsey at one of his sessions with Jane and felt that Jane should let him go as a client. There was another doctor that asked Jane to take over her clients while she was recovering from an emergency appendectomy. One of the clients that she treated was a woman that had been raped by 2 men. Betty's boyfriend couldn't accept what had happened and they were having difficulties with their relationship. The first thing Jane did was to take Betty off all the medication she was on. Jane convinced Betty to adopt a dog and got her in touch with Trixie and Fred to learn to work with her dog and to bring her out of the shell she had put herself in since the rape. Trixie had recently acquired a dog from the police dept when they retired him. Trixie had a lot of money from their books and decided to use some of their money to purchase the dog and give it a good home. She'd never had a dog before. She ended up buying an almost broken down police car and spending time riding around in it with the dog to lift its spirits.
Betty was doing really well. Her other doctor was angry with Jane for taking her off her meds and let Jane know how she felt. Jane told the other doctor that she wasn't seeing Betty as a doctor but only as a friend and that she wasn't going to stop seeing Betty outside of the office.
Jane and Mike began talking about a client of his that carried batteries around with him all the time. Mike couldn't seem to figure out why. He also criticized Jane for becoming too involved with both Brian and Betty. Jane had begun having dreams where she was talking to Billy Jensen, the boy who fell in the well. He had a dog named Jeeter. Olive played with Jeeter when Billy came to talk with Jane.
Jane had decided to go to see Connie's parents and told them about the rape. They gave her some belongings and computer discs that had belonged to Connie. Jane took them home and looked through them. There was one that she couldn't read because she couldn't figure out the password. She came home one night and found the discs moved and a sticky note that had JANE written on it. Jane was the password for the file. Jane found a note to herself from Connie. She talked about what had happened that night and a few things she remembered. Connie mentioned that she thought Todd knew about the rape and was breaking up with her. Jane knew that Todd had married a wealthy woman within a year of Connie's death.
Christmas came and she was planning on spending the day with Mike and meeting his family. Christmas eve was spent with Mike, Trixie and Fred. They told Mike that night that they were the authors of the books he liked so well. The night was broken up by a call from the police dept telling them that Betty had killed herself. Jane went to the crime scene and was given a letter left to her by Betty. Jane was broken up by the death and told Mike that he should have let her call Betty instead of talking her out of contacting her when she wanted to. She and Mike got into a big fight and he had given her an engagement ring for Christmas.
Jane went home and got drunk. She took off the ring and put it away. Its was a couple of weeks before Trixie and Fred stepped in and stopped Jane from wallowing in her guilt. Trixie had talked to Jane about using some of her money and land to create a place where police dogs could be trained. Jane had told Trixie that she was not happy being a psychiatrist and that she wanted to give up her practice. She was going to sell her practice. Betty's doctor had offered to buy the practice but Jane had punched her and broken her nose after Betty's death. She had tried to blame Betty's death on Jane while taking no responsibility for her part in the suicide.
Jane and found out from the letter that Jane had run into her attackers at a convenience store one night and it had brought everything back. Betty couldn't deal with what had happened knowing that she could forever be taunted by the memories of the attackers and them being free to continue to bother her.
Trixie and Fred decided to help Jane and went to the college and offered money through the college for ex-football players to have pictures taken of their hands to use as a cover for their new book. They were thinking that they could find the man that Jane had bit that night. He would have a nasty scar on his hand.
Jane went to see Brian Ramsey after she figured out that he was involved with Betty. Betty wasn't his wife but rather his girlfriend. Jane had figured out that Brian had been there the night of Jane's attack. Jane remembered him being there and told him so. She told him that he needed to contact a lawyer because she was planning on turning over the evidence to the police in regard to Connie's rape and death. He wondered why she was telling him but led him to tell her the names of the other men involved. She got that information out of him. She told him that she would find out names after the search for the hand to use as a book cover revealed who had a scar.
Brian called Jane and asked to meet with her along with the others who hadn't raped Connie. They came to her house and they talked. She warned her that she could be getting herself into trouble but Jane wasn't worried. She had enough evidence on them to make it worse for them if anything happened to her. She told them all to lawyer up and tell their side before the actual attackers tried to blame them. They left, thinking about what she told them.
Brian called and told Jane that she wanted to meet with her again, with all the parties involved in the attack. They came by to talk and Jane told them that her attorney had the clothes left with her after Connie's rape. They were surprised to find out that Jane was the same person that they had pinned down that night at the college. Jane had slimmed down and was quite beautiful now. She still had a hard time accepting that but she had changed from the 'Plain Jane' that she had been.
Jane let the three guys go after they admitted to their part in the attack. She got one of the other guys to put in writing his part in the attack. It was helpful that he told of Todd's part in Connie's attack. Todd had known about the attack on Connie because he orchestrated the entire thing. The guy who wrote out the confession told her that Todd had even given them a diagram on how everything was going to unfold. He had kept a copy of in and would give it to her. He kept it just in case something like this came up. It was his protection for being blamed should Todd turn on him.
Jane and Mike made up and things were back on track between them. She was once again wearing her engagement ring. Indictments were handed down to the men for their part in Connie's suicide. The men who attacked Betty were also caught after Jane took the letter from Betty back to the police. The letter had said that she ran into the guys at the convenience store so Jane suggested looking at the tapes from the store to find out who they were. One of the guys turned on the other and they got the evidence they needed for a conviction.
Jane had continued to talk with Billy Jensen and he told her that if she would remove the boulder that had fallen on him in the well that he could move on. Jane did as he asked and he didn't appear to her anymore. Before he left, he mentioned that Jane needed to forgive her mother for her treatment of her. She was trapped in their old house. Jane went there and spoke with her mother. Her mother apologized for the way she raised Jane. She asked Jane to forgive her at first but then changed her mind. She wanted Jane to come see her as she grew older and to bring her kids to the house so that she could see her grandchildren. Jane decided to persecute her mom but buying the house and burning it down. Jane bought the house with the intention of burning it and trapping her mother in the hell she was in. Jane ended up going back to the house and talking to her mother and resolving their issues. She ended up cleaning it up and refurnishing it. She decided to use the house as the venue for her wedding.
It was a couple months later that Jane and Mike were married. Mike was happy to find out that Jane was alright with starting a family right away.
After a few years, Trixie was honored by the State of Louisiana for her part in training their police dogs. Mike and Jane had a 2 yr old son and a 6 month old daughter. Jane had ordered an extra badge for their dogs graduation this year. She ended up calling out to Billy at the ceremony and giving him the badge for his dog Jeeter.
Jane hadn't believed in ghosts before meeting Mike. She knew they existed now. Billy had told Jane that Mike's patient with the batteries had a problem due to a trauma when he was younger. He used the batteries as a crutch to give himself energy. Jane kept that knowledge to herself for awhile.
Jane used it later to give Mike a hard time about getting too involved with his patients. Mike was having a hard time dealing with the fact that someone had beaten up his patient and stolen all his batteries. Jane went and bought batteries and gave them to the man to give him the strength to fight back from the attack and get well. She mentioned what Billy had told her, not mentioning Billy, and this helped Mike to treat his patient. By the time they were married, Mike's patient was on his way to giving up his obsession with batteries.
Jane had gained weight while attending college while Connie was the homecoming queen and was planning her wedding. Connie made Jane promise not to report the rape because she didn't want her fiancee to find out and break off their wedding plans. Connie killed herself two days later. Jane was torn up keeping her promise. She had taken pictures of Connie's injuries and kept her clothes from that night but she never turned them in or reported their attack.
Jane went on to graduate school and became a psychiatrist. It was now 12 years later and he had a client that made her remember Connie. The client had told her that he was married and having problems dealing with the fact that his wife had been raped. There was something about the story that didn't ring true. Jane had gone by his house and never saw a wife. She asked another dr. to sit in on one of her sessions with him to get his opinion on her client.
Mike Sorenson had gone to high school with Jane but he never paid attention to her then. Jane had been completely dominated by her beauty queen mother. Jane's mother had constantly told Jane that she wasn't good enough. Jane was taught to believe that she was plain and never enough. It was hard as a child to accept that her mother didn't want or love her. Jane was taken in by her godparents and they taught her what unconditional love was.
Her godparents were Fred and Trixie McGuire. They had lived in Rayne, LA for years and no one knew that they were murder book authors, T. F. Dingle. Jane had all their books and found out that Mike liked their books too.
Jane had become the psychiatrist at a local radio station and Mike was impressed. Jane was surprised to find out that Mike was really interested in her and they began dating. She had been dating the radio show director but knew nothing would come of it and told him so. She stopped dating him once she was asked out by Mike. Mike first came to her house when Jane told him that she had ghost at her house. A young boy had fallen in to a well on her property and his spirit had not left.
Mike and Jane grew closer over the next few months. Mike met Brian Ramsey at one of his sessions with Jane and felt that Jane should let him go as a client. There was another doctor that asked Jane to take over her clients while she was recovering from an emergency appendectomy. One of the clients that she treated was a woman that had been raped by 2 men. Betty's boyfriend couldn't accept what had happened and they were having difficulties with their relationship. The first thing Jane did was to take Betty off all the medication she was on. Jane convinced Betty to adopt a dog and got her in touch with Trixie and Fred to learn to work with her dog and to bring her out of the shell she had put herself in since the rape. Trixie had recently acquired a dog from the police dept when they retired him. Trixie had a lot of money from their books and decided to use some of their money to purchase the dog and give it a good home. She'd never had a dog before. She ended up buying an almost broken down police car and spending time riding around in it with the dog to lift its spirits.
Betty was doing really well. Her other doctor was angry with Jane for taking her off her meds and let Jane know how she felt. Jane told the other doctor that she wasn't seeing Betty as a doctor but only as a friend and that she wasn't going to stop seeing Betty outside of the office.
Jane and Mike began talking about a client of his that carried batteries around with him all the time. Mike couldn't seem to figure out why. He also criticized Jane for becoming too involved with both Brian and Betty. Jane had begun having dreams where she was talking to Billy Jensen, the boy who fell in the well. He had a dog named Jeeter. Olive played with Jeeter when Billy came to talk with Jane.
Jane had decided to go to see Connie's parents and told them about the rape. They gave her some belongings and computer discs that had belonged to Connie. Jane took them home and looked through them. There was one that she couldn't read because she couldn't figure out the password. She came home one night and found the discs moved and a sticky note that had JANE written on it. Jane was the password for the file. Jane found a note to herself from Connie. She talked about what had happened that night and a few things she remembered. Connie mentioned that she thought Todd knew about the rape and was breaking up with her. Jane knew that Todd had married a wealthy woman within a year of Connie's death.
Christmas came and she was planning on spending the day with Mike and meeting his family. Christmas eve was spent with Mike, Trixie and Fred. They told Mike that night that they were the authors of the books he liked so well. The night was broken up by a call from the police dept telling them that Betty had killed herself. Jane went to the crime scene and was given a letter left to her by Betty. Jane was broken up by the death and told Mike that he should have let her call Betty instead of talking her out of contacting her when she wanted to. She and Mike got into a big fight and he had given her an engagement ring for Christmas.
Jane went home and got drunk. She took off the ring and put it away. Its was a couple of weeks before Trixie and Fred stepped in and stopped Jane from wallowing in her guilt. Trixie had talked to Jane about using some of her money and land to create a place where police dogs could be trained. Jane had told Trixie that she was not happy being a psychiatrist and that she wanted to give up her practice. She was going to sell her practice. Betty's doctor had offered to buy the practice but Jane had punched her and broken her nose after Betty's death. She had tried to blame Betty's death on Jane while taking no responsibility for her part in the suicide.
Jane and found out from the letter that Jane had run into her attackers at a convenience store one night and it had brought everything back. Betty couldn't deal with what had happened knowing that she could forever be taunted by the memories of the attackers and them being free to continue to bother her.
Trixie and Fred decided to help Jane and went to the college and offered money through the college for ex-football players to have pictures taken of their hands to use as a cover for their new book. They were thinking that they could find the man that Jane had bit that night. He would have a nasty scar on his hand.
Jane went to see Brian Ramsey after she figured out that he was involved with Betty. Betty wasn't his wife but rather his girlfriend. Jane had figured out that Brian had been there the night of Jane's attack. Jane remembered him being there and told him so. She told him that he needed to contact a lawyer because she was planning on turning over the evidence to the police in regard to Connie's rape and death. He wondered why she was telling him but led him to tell her the names of the other men involved. She got that information out of him. She told him that she would find out names after the search for the hand to use as a book cover revealed who had a scar.
Brian called Jane and asked to meet with her along with the others who hadn't raped Connie. They came to her house and they talked. She warned her that she could be getting herself into trouble but Jane wasn't worried. She had enough evidence on them to make it worse for them if anything happened to her. She told them all to lawyer up and tell their side before the actual attackers tried to blame them. They left, thinking about what she told them.
Brian called and told Jane that she wanted to meet with her again, with all the parties involved in the attack. They came by to talk and Jane told them that her attorney had the clothes left with her after Connie's rape. They were surprised to find out that Jane was the same person that they had pinned down that night at the college. Jane had slimmed down and was quite beautiful now. She still had a hard time accepting that but she had changed from the 'Plain Jane' that she had been.
Jane let the three guys go after they admitted to their part in the attack. She got one of the other guys to put in writing his part in the attack. It was helpful that he told of Todd's part in Connie's attack. Todd had known about the attack on Connie because he orchestrated the entire thing. The guy who wrote out the confession told her that Todd had even given them a diagram on how everything was going to unfold. He had kept a copy of in and would give it to her. He kept it just in case something like this came up. It was his protection for being blamed should Todd turn on him.
Jane and Mike made up and things were back on track between them. She was once again wearing her engagement ring. Indictments were handed down to the men for their part in Connie's suicide. The men who attacked Betty were also caught after Jane took the letter from Betty back to the police. The letter had said that she ran into the guys at the convenience store so Jane suggested looking at the tapes from the store to find out who they were. One of the guys turned on the other and they got the evidence they needed for a conviction.
Jane had continued to talk with Billy Jensen and he told her that if she would remove the boulder that had fallen on him in the well that he could move on. Jane did as he asked and he didn't appear to her anymore. Before he left, he mentioned that Jane needed to forgive her mother for her treatment of her. She was trapped in their old house. Jane went there and spoke with her mother. Her mother apologized for the way she raised Jane. She asked Jane to forgive her at first but then changed her mind. She wanted Jane to come see her as she grew older and to bring her kids to the house so that she could see her grandchildren. Jane decided to persecute her mom but buying the house and burning it down. Jane bought the house with the intention of burning it and trapping her mother in the hell she was in. Jane ended up going back to the house and talking to her mother and resolving their issues. She ended up cleaning it up and refurnishing it. She decided to use the house as the venue for her wedding.
It was a couple months later that Jane and Mike were married. Mike was happy to find out that Jane was alright with starting a family right away.
After a few years, Trixie was honored by the State of Louisiana for her part in training their police dogs. Mike and Jane had a 2 yr old son and a 6 month old daughter. Jane had ordered an extra badge for their dogs graduation this year. She ended up calling out to Billy at the ceremony and giving him the badge for his dog Jeeter.
Jane hadn't believed in ghosts before meeting Mike. She knew they existed now. Billy had told Jane that Mike's patient with the batteries had a problem due to a trauma when he was younger. He used the batteries as a crutch to give himself energy. Jane kept that knowledge to herself for awhile.
Jane used it later to give Mike a hard time about getting too involved with his patients. Mike was having a hard time dealing with the fact that someone had beaten up his patient and stolen all his batteries. Jane went and bought batteries and gave them to the man to give him the strength to fight back from the attack and get well. She mentioned what Billy had told her, not mentioning Billy, and this helped Mike to treat his patient. By the time they were married, Mike's patient was on his way to giving up his obsession with batteries.
December 23, 2014
This review was originally posted to Author Unpublished.
For me, Plain Jane by Fern Michaels fell into a hazy gray area of books that I sometimes like to refer to with such phrases as “Meh.” or “Mixed-Bag”. It wasn’t a great book, but it wasn’t horrible either. Technically speaking, the writing was grammatically correct, punctuated appropriately, and most of the time retained a pretty steady pace throughout. With the exception of one error that I found (Page 207, Line 31), this was a clean, well-written read. Unfortunately, the author’s style just wasn’t my cup of tea.
The narrative had a very “cozy” voice to it that’s hard to describe other than to say it lacked tension. The characters were a bit happy-go-lucky and over-dramatic at times, but very little seemed to go wrong for them. Even in moments where the characters should have been terrified or grief stricken, I knew they were going to be okay. I never feared for them, and I never felt bad for them. I wish the author had done more to amp up the tension in the book. Considering the very serious topic of rape, I was expecting the mystery and tension surrounding Connie’s death to be a little more…tense for lack of a better word. Instead, it felt like watching a children’s cast performing a dramatic disaster scene. I just couldn’t take it as seriously as I wanted to.
That isn’t to say that the story was all bad though. Even lacking tension, the mystery and suspense surrounding Connie’s rape and subsequent death was one of the most captivating aspects of the book. I wanted to know what had happened to her and how the event had been orchestrated. I almost wish the entire book had revolved more around the mystery rather than wandering off on tangents about ghost dogs, an old author couple retiring to train k-9’s and Jane’s really-$h!tty feud with the snottiest therapist I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.
The book was a bit busy for me, and lacked good tension. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t great. In the end it was “okay”. Would I read it again? No. It was good for wasting an afternoon, but it’s not a book that would spur me on to read more from the author. In the end, it just wasn’t the kind of romance book I enjoy. I like my romances filled with passion, tension-filled moments, and relationships that overcome insurmountable odds. That isn’t what I got with this. The romance was lukewarm, and I felt the need to skip the sex scenes once Jane started shouting: “Take me, take me now!” Just.. no. I’d recommend this book to romance readers who want their novels sweet and cozy, and their mysteries puzzling but not too scary. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t the type of book I enjoy, but I have no doubt that there will be some readers out there that will inevitably love this book. It just wasn’t for me.
Trigger Warning: There is mention of rape in this book. However the act is not described in great detail (though the attack is written into the book from a bystander POV). I didn’t find it offensive, but it could serve as a trigger to some people who’ve experienced similar trauma.
For me, Plain Jane by Fern Michaels fell into a hazy gray area of books that I sometimes like to refer to with such phrases as “Meh.” or “Mixed-Bag”. It wasn’t a great book, but it wasn’t horrible either. Technically speaking, the writing was grammatically correct, punctuated appropriately, and most of the time retained a pretty steady pace throughout. With the exception of one error that I found (Page 207, Line 31), this was a clean, well-written read. Unfortunately, the author’s style just wasn’t my cup of tea.
The narrative had a very “cozy” voice to it that’s hard to describe other than to say it lacked tension. The characters were a bit happy-go-lucky and over-dramatic at times, but very little seemed to go wrong for them. Even in moments where the characters should have been terrified or grief stricken, I knew they were going to be okay. I never feared for them, and I never felt bad for them. I wish the author had done more to amp up the tension in the book. Considering the very serious topic of rape, I was expecting the mystery and tension surrounding Connie’s death to be a little more…tense for lack of a better word. Instead, it felt like watching a children’s cast performing a dramatic disaster scene. I just couldn’t take it as seriously as I wanted to.
That isn’t to say that the story was all bad though. Even lacking tension, the mystery and suspense surrounding Connie’s rape and subsequent death was one of the most captivating aspects of the book. I wanted to know what had happened to her and how the event had been orchestrated. I almost wish the entire book had revolved more around the mystery rather than wandering off on tangents about ghost dogs, an old author couple retiring to train k-9’s and Jane’s really-$h!tty feud with the snottiest therapist I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.
The book was a bit busy for me, and lacked good tension. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t great. In the end it was “okay”. Would I read it again? No. It was good for wasting an afternoon, but it’s not a book that would spur me on to read more from the author. In the end, it just wasn’t the kind of romance book I enjoy. I like my romances filled with passion, tension-filled moments, and relationships that overcome insurmountable odds. That isn’t what I got with this. The romance was lukewarm, and I felt the need to skip the sex scenes once Jane started shouting: “Take me, take me now!” Just.. no. I’d recommend this book to romance readers who want their novels sweet and cozy, and their mysteries puzzling but not too scary. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t the type of book I enjoy, but I have no doubt that there will be some readers out there that will inevitably love this book. It just wasn’t for me.
Trigger Warning: There is mention of rape in this book. However the act is not described in great detail (though the attack is written into the book from a bystander POV). I didn’t find it offensive, but it could serve as a trigger to some people who’ve experienced similar trauma.
February 9, 2014
Dr. Jane Lewis is a psychotherapist who is still running from when she refused to take Connie Bryan to the hospital to be checked out after her rape in college. Jane was "too fat," and a "tub of lard, a beached whale" herself. So she lost weight and got her degree, but was traumatized by Connie's suicide. However, she ends her radio show with "The three R's, respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for your actions."
Billy Jenson, and Jeeter, both ghosts, tell her just enough to be tantalizing. Her godparents Trixie and Fred are T.F. Dingle, the unknown mystery writer. Trixie befriends a vicious dog with few social skills, named Flash. Olive is Jane's dog.
The love interest is Mike Sorenson, who is also a psychotherapist, and correctly diagnoses Jane's problem as her mother, who was a beauty queen, more interested in looks than internal processes, hence Plain Jane.
Trixie & Fred buy a cop car & enough equipment to keep Flash busy; Mike keeps analyzing Jane; Billy provides minimal input; Jane contacts her mother, who has seen the error of her ways; and Jane finds out the guys that gang -- raped Connie and why. Oh, and Mike? Predictable.
Billy Jenson, and Jeeter, both ghosts, tell her just enough to be tantalizing. Her godparents Trixie and Fred are T.F. Dingle, the unknown mystery writer. Trixie befriends a vicious dog with few social skills, named Flash. Olive is Jane's dog.
The love interest is Mike Sorenson, who is also a psychotherapist, and correctly diagnoses Jane's problem as her mother, who was a beauty queen, more interested in looks than internal processes, hence Plain Jane.
Trixie & Fred buy a cop car & enough equipment to keep Flash busy; Mike keeps analyzing Jane; Billy provides minimal input; Jane contacts her mother, who has seen the error of her ways; and Jane finds out the guys that gang -- raped Connie and why. Oh, and Mike? Predictable.
May 20, 2018
I thought Trixie could be extremely judgemental and ignorant at times. I didn't like some of the things she said to Betty Vance. Trixie has obviously never experienced depression herself. I was glad when Betty told her off, Trixie deserved it. Other than that the book was okay. I liked the romance between Jane and Mike. Jane was fortunately more likeable than Trixie although sometimes she could say very judgemental things, too. Like when she judged Betty for not doing her hair and makeup when she was severely depressed. When you're that depressed it takes extreme effort to do little things like shower and go to work. I think she could have showed Betty more compassion in that scene. As someone who's dealt with depression for years I found those parts of the book extremely offensive.
July 5, 2011
This had a pretty decent storyline, but I wasn't expecting the ghostly aspect of the book. I enjoyed the part with Trixie and the dogs. I felt that Jane had major mommy issues to deal with, and it seemed strange that she was dispensing advice when she had so many of her own personal demons to deal with. I could understand the guilt she felt about her friend's attack and subsequent suicide, but I also felt that she should have done something about it instead of burying herself in work. I also felt bad for the way she treated Michael. She got angry and jealous without cutting him any breaks or explaining herself. I don't think most men would be as understanding as he was.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2019
When Jane Lewis was in college she was known as an overweight frumpy shy young woman. Jane blossomed and became the confident psychotherapist so different from the person she was in school. Jane has her dog Olive to keep her company but would like to have a man in her life. Jane is harboring a secret from her college days when one night she befriended a very popular young woman who unfortunately was attacked and later took her own life. Jane has never forgotten this incident and is determined to find answers and when she does she stirs up a hornets nest.
June 4, 2021
The book is ok written. It was loaned to me to read by someone I am very close to, she said she really liked the book so I thought I’d enjoy it too. There was too much sex in the book for my taste, at times kinda descriptive and at either times just stated. There was too much going on with her jobs, her childhood, her trauma being pinned down while a new friend was gang raped nearby, trying to solve said rape, starting a new job, meeting a guy (who I kept expecting to be be one of her suspects or to just leave her), the ghosts, etc. it was too much.
March 17, 2011
I'm discovering that I definitely like a plucky heroine. Give me Kinsey Milhone, Anna Pigeon, even the sometimes-anxious Kate Scarpetta. They are strong women and I enjoy their adventures. Plain Jane had a lot going for it. It's a combination mystery, tragicomedy, love story, ghost story, dog story and more. But I found the whiny, insecure heroine to be annoying. Jane Lewis is, astonishingly, a psychiatrist.
March 23, 2017
Your typical romance mystery.
-Ghost adds omniscient element that heightens drama (e.g. warning signs) and motivates plot (manipulates files for protagonist to identify rapists while sleuthing)
-Attempts to create an independently-minded female character who lets her opinion known. Sometimes, it's also a detriment to her character, negating the aforementioned message
-Ghost adds omniscient element that heightens drama (e.g. warning signs) and motivates plot (manipulates files for protagonist to identify rapists while sleuthing)
-Attempts to create an independently-minded female character who lets her opinion known. Sometimes, it's also a detriment to her character, negating the aforementioned message
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2021
I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways for an honest review.
I had a hard time getting into Plain Jane. The beginning was a bit slow for me and I didn't really see the chemistry between Jane and Mike. The side stories with Trixie and Fred were my favorite parts of the story. I liked how everything wrapped up in the end.
I had a hard time getting into Plain Jane. The beginning was a bit slow for me and I didn't really see the chemistry between Jane and Mike. The side stories with Trixie and Fred were my favorite parts of the story. I liked how everything wrapped up in the end.
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