Someone Like You

I'm studying English as a foreign language. This book is very interesting and helpful to my reading skill. I had read it many times. I have a plan to read Barbara Bretton's works.

Joely Doyle left her hometown of Idle Point, Maine to make a life for herself. Eventually she settled in Scotland where she currently lives with William and his daughter. However, though she loves her housemates, the adult relationship is drifting apart and only their adoration for the child keeps the couple together. Her thirty-eight years older pregnant sister Cat begs Joely to come home as she needs her help since their mother, former folk singer Mimi, suffered a stroke, burned down their house, and is currently hospitalized. Reluctantly Joely returns to Maine to see her mother, a woman who has lived in a fantasy world ever since her husband deserted her three decades ago; that "realm" is where Joely feels she and her sister were raised. However, Joely begins to learn family secrets especially that of her parents; this makes the American expatriate reassess mom and reconsider her future. This strong family drama stars three realistic females struggling with the pivotal moment in their respective lives, the abandonment of the male over thirty years ago. Readers will appreciate how that particular key event impacted the three Doyles left behind as none of them trust males and for the most part not one another too. Readers who appreciate a powerful character study that digs deep into cause and effect will want to read Barbara Bretton's fine convincing tale. Harriet Klausner

For the last quarter of a centry, Mimi Doyle has lived on the hope that Mark Doyle would return home from his little trip to "get guitar strings". Her two daughters, Cat and Joely, suffered no such delusions. The two girls became no nonsense young women who held love at arm's length. Just as they are beginning to let the walls around their hearts soften, Mimi's latest crisis tests her children in every way possible. Whether due to substance abuse, a stroke, or some unknown cause, Mimi passes out one night, setting her home on fire. She survives; now, Cat and Joely have to return home to pick up the pieces. Cat is in her first trimester, but her love life is still a bit uneasy. The man in her life will have to accept the new challenges in her life, plus decide how he wants his role in it defined. Joely's entered a seriuos relationship, but it's on shaky ground when she gets the call. With her lover in Japan at a meeting, she has no choice but to pack up his little girl and fly from Scotland to Maine. Her William faces even more tests than Cat's Michael. Throw in tabloid reporters on the scent of "blood" and an unexpected reunion or two, and you have the recipe for a moving story that will give those on the rocky road to a happy ending hope. **** Ms. Bretton is one of those writers who writes far more good than the opposite; and this may be her deepest, most complex, and heart touching work to date. **** Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.