I really enjoyed this book. I don’t think it was as good as The Secret Life of Bees, which is one of my all time faves, but this one was good. I’d say it is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

I finished this a while ago but didn’t get to writing a review right away. I thought the book was good. I liked The Secret Life of Bees better, but I also enjoyed this. It is a story about a married middle aged woman whose daughter leaves for college and she realizes she is unhappy with her life. She goes to stay with her disturbed and self-destructive mother and ends up falling in love with a monk. The characters are well developed, the storyline is unique, and it isn’t very predictable. Worth a read.

I’m not sure why this book receives bad reviews, because I absolutely love it. Kidd is a word master as exemplifies in this excellent book. The storyline and set, though fictitious, feel so real, and I can really identify with the character a great deal. This has to be my best read for the year. Highly recommend to everyone.

This is a somewhat disappointing book compared to Secret Life of Bees, yet I hate to say it wasn’t worth consuming. It felt more like a sort of romance novel with quirkiness thrown in, rather than a quirky book with some romantic diversions, as Bees was. And really, the worst parts of Bees were the parts about romance.

I’m not sure it’s a good sign that I would like to smack the narrator, but perhaps in the end that will prove to be the author’s intention. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and finish.

i really, really, really liked ‘the secret life of bees’ so i was pretty excited about this book. unfortunately, it turned out to be more chicklit then i care for and i didn’t like the characters. it was an okay read, but i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Just started listening to this last night and it’s already rubbing me the wrong way. I hate very self-aware, navel-gazing books, and I’m afraid that’s what this will turn out to be.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book because of the story itself, but I did like the book a lot. I identified with the main character, and then got upset with her over her choices in the middle! But, I like the way Sue Monk Kidd writes and I thought she handled the story very well. I’ve already passed this book on to my friend!

I just picked this up last night, and the writing has me hooked. I hope the book continues like it started!