Once in Every Life

This was my first book that I read by Kristin Hannah. It started out a little slow, then caught my interest until, for the umpteenth time I read that he loved his wife but he couldn't stand her. Even though there were children I found it hard to believe that if they were so unhappy for YEARS that Jack stayed married to Amarylis AND remained monogamous.

I know Jack had a lot of baggage because of what happened during the Civil War. Also, his marriage was poisoned for a long time but I got tired of Lissa/Tess constantly trying to fix things between her and Jack through the first half of the book and Jack never believing her. Jack saw that Lissa was different (it was like night and day) and she never gave him a reason to doubt her after she "changed". The book also had a quick secondary story that seemed hurried at the end.

Still, there was something about the story that was nice. I just can't recommend it. I'll try some other titles by this author since I know she has potential for a better story.

I am a HUGE Kristin Hannah fan! I absolutely LOVE many of her books. This one, however, was very slow. I was over half way through it before it started to "pick up" and spark my interest. The ending is triumphant so it wasn't a total waste. It's an easy read. Classic Hannah character development. Overall, ok. Not her best.

I had only read one book by this author previously and found that one to be a fast paced story that only took a couple of days to read but what I enjoyed about it the most was the omission of foul language. I am not a prude and most of the books I read do have some offensive language in them.
But this book "Once In Every Life" was filled with profanity, and especially the use of God, Jesus, and Christ in conjunction with swearing. Far more than was necessary to get the author's point across. I am disappointed as I ordered three of her books at the same time and I am hoping they are more like the first book but afraid they will be like this one.
Ms. Hannah ruined a beautiful story by using too many pages for swear words. Just one reader's humble opinion.....

The previous reviews have pretty much said all there is to say about the basic storyline - but after always complaining about emotionally battered h's - i wanted to say how refreshing it was to read about a Hero's side after him going through the abuse.

I loved how the H recovered from this and how the heroine truly helped him. I could rave and rave about how good it felt to read about a Hero who's had a tough life without punishing the heroine because of it - but i'll leave it with a 'book well worth reading'.

Ash

Emotionally strong and passionate. The characters really makes you ache with sympathy and compassion. I loved it from beginning to end. My only complain... and this is very minor... is that a few things tends to be repetitious. The mentioning of that pain and far in his eyes, for instant, is used a little too often. Not that it fails to draw one's compassion every time... I just thought a few new adjectives and nouns here and there wouldn't hurt.