Kentucky Rich

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Writer
Review: Fern Michaels is the best romance writer I've ever read. For those of you who like romance in a book but don't want to read about the sex details for 5 pages, this is the author for you. Fern Michaels has a way to make her characters come to life. You really feel like you involved in the story by feeling sympathy, happiness and sadness right along with the characters in her stories. The Kentucky series is a must have for any reader who loves a good romance story with a whole lot more.

Rating:
Summary: Started off good...
Review: I got this book, Kentucky Rich, along with its sequel, Kentucky Heat, a few days ago and just finished the first book. It took awhile to get through and I ended up skimming a lot of it.

The book starts off interesting, with a prologue about Nealy Coleman coming back to the home she was driven off of 30 years earlier to "dance" on her dying father's grave and to make him pay for mistreating her.

The novel then goes to "part 1," which goes back 30 years to talk about how 17 year old Nealy and her 2 year old daughter ran away from home (at the urgings of her two brothers, Pyne and Rhy) and ended up at Blue Diamond Farms, where the owners, Maud and Jess, take them in. It follows Nealy's growing up and eventually taking over the farm.

Part 2 is 30 years later, and starts with the prologue and Nealy's reunion with her brothers and dying father. This is where the book really starts to fall on its face. The plot here gets mind numbingly boring, even confusing at times when the author brings back dozens of characters from two of her other trilogies (which I have not read, so I am not familiar with them).

Nealy as a herione is rather unlikeable. She's immature, even at the end as a 50-something year old woman. She's often cold and heartless. I couldn't garner any sympathy for her and her actions often made me say "What the heck??"

The romance in this book is practically unmentioned. Nealy meets the hero in the first part of the book, barely interacts with him during the entire "part 1" and the two are married at the end. Part 2 opens with basically "Oh yeah, Hunt died and actually his and Nealy's relationship wasn't really love, he was having affairs and didn't deserve her." Uhh... what??!

It's also obvious that Fern Michaels knows practically nothing about horses. Being a horsewoman myself, I laughed out loud at some of the ridiculous scenes in this book. Some other reviewers have mentioned them as well - one of my favorite idiotic scenes is when Nealy wants the stallion to witness the birth of his colt and have the three of them (stallion, mare and colt) become a "family." Sorry, but horses are not people. While I believe they feel affection, they don't form "families" in the way that people do.

Also, the author seemed to have a lot of trouble putting the plot together. It jumped around so much it was jarring to read. One example is when Nealy meets a guy that some of her friends are trying to set her up with. He starts off by telling her that a woman's place is in the kitchen and not on a horse (which of course makes her mad). Eventually he apologizes and they make up. Cut, next chapter begins. It's several months later and Nealy hates his guts because they were supposed to have a date and he stood her up. What the heck??

She also makes a big deal out of certain events.. like a hundred pages leading up to a big race - a race so important because it was her promise to the dying Maud that the horse win - then spends one short paragraph on the race itself.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with this book. The main character is unsympathetic, poorly written and unlikeable. There is practically no romance in the book - and what romance IS there is completely unrealistic. Research is important, and its obvious the author either didn't do her research on horses and racing, or just decided to disregard the facts. So I give it 2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I had read the Texas Series by Fern Michaels many years ago. I have to say that that series was better written. However, the Kentucky series is still entertaining. Some other reviews I read regarding the way the author portrays inaccuracies in thoroughbred breeding and racing are explained by the author at the beginning of the book. She did that to write the story the way she wanted to write it.

Rating:
Summary: Michaels begins a new trilogy...
Review: Nealy Coleman Diamond has returned home to SunStar after having fled 30 years ago with her illegitimate daughter. Her father, Josh Coleman, was abusive and dictatorial, driving Nealy away. She's back now because he's on his deathbed, and she wants to literally dance on his grave. While she's back, she's going to rub the success she's found in Kentucky with breeding and racing horses-even winning The Triple Crown-into the noses of those who'd snubbed her before, most especially the guy who'd gotten her pregnant, ultimately leading to her leaving.

What Nealy doesn't plan on is having to face legal snafu's caused by her father's lack of a will, and her bumbling brothers. And the long line of folks who seem to be lining up at the door waiting to get paid, and to pay their last respects...

Fern Michaels has long been known for her family sagas, and those who are familiar with her Texas and Vegas trilogy's will be thrilled with the Kentucky series. While Ms. Michaels pulls us through a whole range of emotions, the characters weren't as real life as I thought they could be, and I have to admit that I was disappointed in the romance in the book, what little there was of it. However, it was a good solid story, and gives a terrific insight into the life of horse racing, the thrills and chills to be experienced. Being a Kentuckian myself, I have to say she did a wonderful job on the descriptions of the state and the horse country. For those who love sagas, you'll enjoy this book. But if you're looking for a true romance, this isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly sexist, continuation seems worse
Review: The author of this novel is incredibly sexist. She seems to be very nice in the letter at the end of the book, sharing her favorite recipes and poems with you (even though she has bad taste in poetry). She says she enjoys writing novels about women who get stronger as the story progresses, which was the case in Texas rich (Billy was such a wimpy pathetic character it made me sick) but in this book the main character gets nastier and nastier. She's a terrible heroine; she smokes, is pig-headed, has a dirty mouth and is sexist. She wants to show the world that women can do anything men can, yet doesn't believe men can do anything. She says she only likes women's cooking-but if a man said he only liked men's cooking she'd be all after him! By the second part of her books, the heroine's marriage has fallen apart, and her husband is cheating on her. Of course, she never cheats on him, nooo. I am a girl, by the way, but hypocrisy makes me sick.
A factor of magic was brought into the book; her daughter can see angels, a dead guy talks to his sister and friend, and the heroine is psychic! She single-handedly ruins the only factor of excitement the book might have had, by knowing what's the outcome of every situation, from what gender the foal will be to whether or not she will win the race. The magic and otherworldly stuff is pretty lame.
Also, every man she meets seems to be worse than the last, but every new woman is the sister she never had, the mother she never had (the third cousin twice removed she never had) and each woman more reliable than the last. Despite the fact that she is called a great mother, in the sneak preview at the end of the book, she throws both of her kids out of the house never to return because they're late coming back from their vacation. Wow. Great mother. She even admits that the horses always come first. In fact, she would be better off with horses. They'd do her more good. This is the second book I've read by her-and had I known who the author was, I would have only read one. I doubt I'll ever read another.
The good stuff: the book is interesting and keeps your attention. The characters are ok and the story is original, bringing in some of the characters from Texas Rich, which was nice. If you like this kind of story, buy it, but it isn't my thing.


Rating:
Summary: overwhelmingly shallow
Review: This is my first Fern Michaels book and it won't be my last. Hailing originally from Baltimore, the home of the Preakness, I grew up loving the sport but from afar. I know nothing about the intracacies of training or racing a horse. What I do know is that Ms. Michaels captured the love an owner, trainer and jockey has for his horses and how that love is returned by the animal. Nealy Coleman Diamond and her daughter Emmie leave a disastrous home situation and are lovingly embraced and adopted by Maud and Jess Diamond. These 4 main characters share so much love, wealth and fame. The book evolves over a 30 year span and the later chapters reunite Nealy with her estranged family who once again triumph over much adversity and manipulation. The story is wholesome without much profanity, violence and sex, which is refreshing to say the least in this day and age. Pure race enthusiasts rate this low, but if the reader can forget the facts of racing and concentrate on the love emanating from the story, I think it will be a rewarding read. Kentucky Heat is on my book shelf beckoning.

Rating:
Summary: Love Wins the Race
Review: This is my first Fern Michaels book and it won't be my last. Hailing originally from Baltimore, the home of the Preakness, I grew up loving the sport but from afar. I know nothing about the intracacies of training or racing a horse. What I do know is that Ms. Michaels captured the love an owner, trainer and jockey has for his horses and how that love is returned by the animal. Nealy Coleman Diamond and her daughter Emmie leave a disastrous home situation and are lovingly embraced and adopted by Maud and Jess Diamond. These 4 main characters share so much love, wealth and fame. The book evolves over a 30 year span and the later chapters reunite Nealy with her estranged family who once again triumph over much adversity and manipulation. The story is wholesome without much profanity, violence and sex, which is refreshing to say the least in this day and age. Pure race enthusiasts rate this low, but if the reader can forget the facts of racing and concentrate on the love emanating from the story, I think it will be a rewarding read. Kentucky Heat is on my book shelf beckoning.