Savannah Page

I've been needing a feel good book, one that I know would end in a happy way. A Sister's Place is that book. The setting is a bit cliché, Gracie is the older more responsible and stable sister, while Juliette is the wild and free younger sister. The one thing I am glad I can say is that it doesn't start with the sister's having a falling out, they have just grown apart as people tend to do, however Mimi (a great character I wish was used more) knew this and concocted a really great plan to get them together.

I love the growth the sister have together, yes they are seemingly different but that overwhelming drama that tends to happen, doesn't happen too often, in fact instead of the sisters seemingly switch roles like most of these books tend to do, they Gracie and Juliette instead manage to accept each other flaws and all.

I couldn't, unfortunately, relate to the book. I don't have sisters, I never even wanted a sister ( I have two brothers and sometimes wish I was the only child) so reading this sometimes just made me shrug most of the touching scenes off. I didn't care too much, even though the characters were pretty great. If you had a sister you were close with, yet life got in the way I can tell you this book would be perfect for you.

The ending was a bit predictable for Juliette's part, however I didn't see Gracie's ending coming. I wish the ending gave me more though. I wanted a 'year later' scene that showed me what happened with the sister's relationship, who lives in the house and whatnot. I guess Page wanted you to use your imagination on what happens.

*This was given to me by Netgalley for a fair and honest review*… (mehr)

The fourth novel in Savannah Page's "When Girlfriends..." series now focuses on Claire Linley. Claire became engaged to her long-time college boyfriend, Conner, in When Girlfriends Make Choices.

Though we haven't had a chance to have her character interacting beyond the girlfriends get together to hang out scenes in the previous novels except for in When Girlfriends Break Hearts. In that novel we find out that Clarie has been pushing Conner to get engaged for a while and that she is closest to Sophie out of the group of friends.

I did like that we got additional details on all of the girls. I still want more details on Jackie though. I feel out of the group of friends she is the one that everyone tends to forget about and something seems to be going on with her. Next to Emily, I cannot wait to read Jackie's story.

As someone who had to deal with family members getting married and the craziness that it involves I have to say that Ms. Page has that done pact. I thought all of the scenes between Claire and Conner were done very well and you could see both sides of the issue and sympathize with them both.

Though I generally liked the novel, there were two reasons that I marked it down by one star.

The first is that I think the only that didn't ring true to me in this novel is that Claire was considered easy going by everyone that knew her until the wedding planning. Based on what I read she has seemed overbearing in all of the novels and until this novel was my least favorite character of the girlfriends. I ended up liking her more in this novel though since I could finally get a chance to see her perspective on things.

Second, was that once again Ms. Page could have ended this novel at least in two distinct places prior to the ending that she did write. Since this is fourth in a series, the next novel focusing on Emily (I cannot wait for that one!) could have had details on the wedding and aftermath.

I recommend to fans of the series!… (mehr)

I have been reading Savannah Page's "When Girlfriends" series for a little while now. To date, my favorite from that series off the top of my head was, When Girlfriends Step Up.

This novel focuses on the fifth girl in our ensemble, Emily Saunders. Emily is a trust fund baby who does not need to work, but does work part time at her friend Sophie's cafe (see When Girlfriends Break Hearts) and freelances as a photographer. Emily definitely loves to travel, however, doesn't know if she will ever find the one like her friends since she cannot see herself staying in one place for too long.

When Emily mentions thinking about traveling again, her friends decide that all of them will set her up with a blind date so that she can finally see about committing to someone and find love.

I would suggest first time readers start with "When Girlfriends Break Hearts". That novel was the weakest in the series for me. However, you need to start there to get all of the relationships straight in your head and also to know what characters are talking about when they refer to past events. Ms. Page assumes the readers have been reading right along in order so she does not feel the need to re-introduce every little thing (thank goodness) but does refer to things to ensure that a cold reader would not be confused about what characters are discussing.

I am very happy that with Emily's story Ms. Page provides more details on Seattle, Pike Place Market, the parks, everything.

I was also happy that with Emily's character we got more insight into Jackie and more of the other girls as well.

The only reason why I dropped this half a star was because I thought it was a bit much that all of Emily's friends pretty much acted that until she found the one she was never going to be committed to anything. I found Emily very committed to finding what works for her, her work, her friends, and her resolve to return to Africa. Since I am a traveler (semi-retired) I felt myself more emphatic to Emily's character since I have friends who are constantly trying to fix me up and don't understand why I am single. I also want to say just like in the last book that Clarie (When Girlfriends Chase Dreams) was still annoying. I don't like that she sticks her nose in everything and seems to feel that when she is ready to get married or have kids her now husband needs to get on the same page. I know that Emily said she was glad to see Claire back to normal but I really didn't see that.

Would definitely recommend to fans of the series!… (mehr)

I have been reading the "When Girlfriends..." series for the past year or so. This series is about a group of six girlfriends who all met in college and have remained close and live in Seattle. The group of girls consists of Sophie, Robin, Lara, Clarie, Emily, and Jackie.

"When Girlfriends Break Hearts" was novel #1 in this series and it was kind of a rocky novel in my start. I thought that Ms. Page had an interesting premise but I thought some of the characters needed to be developed.

"When Girlfriends Step Up" was novel #2 in the series. I really thought having this novel focus on Robin was a smart move due to the events that happened in the preceding novel. I didn't think I would be a fan of hers but I honestly ended up loving this character.

"When Girlfriends Make Choices" was novel #3 and focused on the character of Lara. I actually felt for Lara throughout this novel due to the choices that she makes that begin to have an impact on her, her friendships, and her job.

"When Girlfriends Chase Dreams" was novel #4 and focuses on the character of Claire. Clarie for me was the most annoying character (next to Jackie) in the girlfriend group. She grew on me a little bit in this novel but pretty much ruined any warm feelings I had for her in the next three novels. She is 100 percent childish about certain things and I felt like she would get old quick.

"When Girlfriends Take Chances" was novel #5 and focuses on my favorite character, Emily. Emily is a globe trotting trust fund baby who has a unique perspective on life and what she wants out of it. Since I used to travel a lot a few years ago I can honestly say that Emily's novels brought out my wanderlust again.

"When Girlfriends Let Go" was novel #6 and focuses on the character of Jackie. Jackie's novel in my eyes could have been so much more but just had uneven character development and an ending that I was honestly surprised by. Next to Clarie I think that Jackie ended up just becoming my least favorite of the girls.

"When Girlfriends Find Love" is the final novel in the series and it ends focusing on the character of Sophie. I honestly found the novel focusing on Sophie to be the weakest out of the series but did up until this novel like the character of Sophie.

I think the main reason why this novel ultimately did not work for me was that I found that there were a lot of characters telling Sophie what she should do with regards to her love life but I honestly did not find her and the other love interest in the novel believable at all. I was afraid that this was the way the novel would go when I saw hints of it in the other novels which is why I think it would have been a good idea for Ms. Page to throw in an entirely new character to have Sophie actually become involved with.

It also didn't help that there was way too many info dumps going on via the character of Sophie too. I think the entire first chapter was just inside Sophie's head and there is no dialogue at all. i just found myself getting extremely bored while reading this sadly. There was no real tension while reading this novel since the ending was a foregone conclusion.

I really think it would have been a great idea to have this novel have all of the girls that we have come to know and love alternate chapters especially because this is the last novel in the series. That way we could follow up with all of them and we can actually see what is going on with them instead of them regurgitating information at Sophie. There were so many interesting plot-lines that I felt like got the short end of the stick just so we can have Sophie flash-backing to her previous relationship and romantic dalliances.

I still think Ms. Page is a talented writer I just which she had stretched herself with this novel a bit more.… (mehr)