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Five Miles South Of Peculiar (2012)

by Angela Elwell Hunt(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1439182043 (ISBN13: 9781439182048)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Howard Books

review 1: If you are looking for that next quirky character driven summer read than Five Miles South of Peculiar by Angela Elwell Hunt is a perfect fit. Sisterly love and hate abounds in the pages of this well written novel. Join the three Caldwell sisters in Five Miles South of Peculiar,a small town in the southern part of Florida, as you open yourself up to a story about family, loyalty, love, growing-up, taking risks and faith. The best way I can describe the feel of this book is to say the author writes as if you she’s your best friend and she just arrived on your front porch for some tea and local gossip. Here it is in a nutshell, two of the three sister have hit that milestone birthday number 50 and start to examine their lives or should I say reexamine their lives. Socra... moretes said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and therein lies the conflict of this novel. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you are a fan of this bestselling author than this is a must read. If you are new to this author what a great novel to get your feet wet with as you sit pool or beachside. Thank you Net Galley and Simon & Schuster Inc./Howard Books for the Advance Reader’s copy of this book.
review 2: I grabbed this at my library. I love Southern Fiction and the description on the back of the book grabbed my interest. Unfortunately, the book itself was lacking. There are 800 reviews that summarize the plot, so I am not going to do that. All I am going to tell you is that I didn't enjoy this book much. I do not believe you must always like the main characters of every book you read. That would be boring. Darlene and Carlene were utterly unlikable. The character of Henry was underdeveloped and boring. Nolie was interesting, sweet and likable, but I am pretty sure I never want to read about aprons again thanks to this book. That's saying something because I have a vintage apron fetish and own many. Erik was also rather likable and interesting, but too underdeveloped. The storyline had promise, but it dragged. Oh! did it drag. The author constantly alluded to major happenings in the past of Carlene and Darlene....things that explained the strain of their relationship. She kept hinting and teasing at it, but it took until the very last pages (about 20-30 pages before the end) for the actual truth and meat of all the consternation to be revealed. And then *poof* everything was tidied up quite quickly. It was a very frustrating read because I found myself rolling my eyes at each chapter just wanting her to make the point already. The rest of the storyline wasn't strong enough to hold you until the past was revealed. The incidents in the past were quite substantial for these sisters and lead to 30 years over emotional distance, jealousy, mistrust and immaturity. I would have liked to have seen this revelation happen earlier so we could see the characters deal with each other and repair their relationship with this new knowledge of past events. But, no. The author had one sister drop a bomb. The other sister also reveals her own long-held secret to the audience. It explains Darlene's jealousy (guilty conscience) and Carlene's reluctance to visit Sycamores while Griff was still alive. You'd expect more discussion, but everything was just tidied up, resolved and the happy endings commenced. Though the book takes places in the South, it lacked that feel. The author throws in some Summer phrases, a Buttersquash pageant, and a quip or two about the North, but it's not enough to give it a true Southern flavor.This book is Christian fiction, but it's not heavy-handed or preachy. I am a Christian myself, but I dislike heavy doses of religion or evangelism and I think the author did a perfect job of keeping God's presence known in the book without being overbearing. I understand she spoke to her vet about the dog breeding bits in the book, but as a veterinary technician, the whole plot with the breeding, whelping and c-section was just....no. I echo criticism in other reviews that note the sloppy switch from character to character and different points in time. It was confusing at parts. Also, she begins talking about the possibility of OCD for Nolie and has Carlene asking all the townsfolk to stop accepting aprons. That plotline lived for a short moment and then just disappeared without much resolution. That could have gone somewhere. All in all, it's an easy read, but flawed and not captivating. less

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