Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Beach Read!
Review: A fun story, engaging characters, a lovely destination...what a fun book to read either on the beach or in the middle of a snowstorm curled up on your couch. Yup, the writing's a little uneven (the chapter devoted to the landlady is, by far, the best--I wanted a book about HER), but the story grabs you. And the setting!! Oh, London!! One of my favorite cities and it was brought to life beautifully by the author. Relax, put down that terribly deep, intellectual book you are slogging through and secretly hate, and pick up London Holiday. You deserve a break!
Rating: 
Summary: FRIENDSHIP, LOYALTY, AND NEW BEGINNINGS
Review: Friendship, loyalty, and new beginnings. That's what London Holiday by Richard Peck is all about. It's also about being a charmingly upbeat tale amidst today's morass of painful confessionals and doomsday prognostications - how welcome! An Edgar Allen Poe Award-winner and author of 20 some novels for young readers, Mr. Peck shifts gracefully between genres with this, his fourth adult novel, as he focuses on three childhood friends, now middle-aged women, who travel to London for a stay at that city's most famous bed-and-breakfast created and run by the daunting Mrs. Smith-Porter who has learned that "people come halfway round the world to talk mainly of themselves and home." The women have distanced themselves from their Missouri girlhood. Despite the heroic, sometimes unwelcome efforts of Les, now a St. Louis do-gooder, time and miles have caused their friendship to fray at the edges. When one of the trio, Margo, a teacher who has been recently divorced and is coping with an irascible teenage daughter, is the victim of a classroom shooting, Les determines to reunite the three for a restorative stay in England. Unhappily married and an inveterate, hovering organizer, Les convinces the third member of the triumverate Julia, a New York City based interior designer still smarting from the AIDS related death of her mentor and partner, that this is the tonic Margo needs. Once the threesome crosses the Atlantic they encounter a cast of wonderful British characters, including Mrs. Dowdel, "the char of earlier times, down to the hat she never took off, the fag stuck to her lower lip, and the unchanging apron." London Holiday also proves to be an entertaining armchair travelogue as the trio takes tea in the orangery of Kensington Palace, visit the Ritz, and Julia explores the enormous tent city that is Bermondsey Market where she meets an attractive, single furniture dealer. All of the women have weathered disappointments and little suspect the gladsome life-changing opportunities they will find in London. There is romance, challenge and self-fulfillment awaiting each of them in this feel-good cheery tale. Mr. Peck's stylish story offers not only pleasant diversion but a vicarious boost, and an urge to cheer, "Go, girls!" - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: FRIENDSHIP, LOYALTY, AND NEW BEGINNINGS
Review: Friendship, loyalty, and new beginnings. That's what London Holiday by Richard Peck is all about. It's also about being a charmingly upbeat tale amidst today's morass of painful confessionals and doomsday prognostications - how welcome! An Edgar Allen Poe Award-winner and author of 20 some novels for young readers, Mr. Peck shifts gracefully between genres with this, his fourth adult novel, as he focuses on three childhood friends, now middle-aged women, who travel to London for a stay at that city's most famous bed-and-breakfast created and run by the daunting Mrs. Smith-Porter who has learned that "people come halfway round the world to talk mainly of themselves and home." The women have distanced themselves from their Missouri girlhood. Despite the heroic, sometimes unwelcome efforts of Les, now a St. Louis do-gooder, time and miles have caused their friendship to fray at the edges. When one of the trio, Margo, a teacher who has been recently divorced and is coping with an irascible teenage daughter, is the victim of a classroom shooting, Les determines to reunite the three for a restorative stay in England. Unhappily married and an inveterate, hovering organizer, Les convinces the third member of the triumverate Julia, a New York City based interior designer still smarting from the AIDS related death of her mentor and partner, that this is the tonic Margo needs. Once the threesome crosses the Atlantic they encounter a cast of wonderful British characters, including Mrs. Dowdel, "the char of earlier times, down to the hat she never took off, the fag stuck to her lower lip, and the unchanging apron." London Holiday also proves to be an entertaining armchair travelogue as the trio takes tea in the orangery of Kensington Palace, visit the Ritz, and Julia explores the enormous tent city that is Bermondsey Market where she meets an attractive, single furniture dealer. All of the women have weathered disappointments and little suspect the gladsome life-changing opportunities they will find in London. There is romance, challenge and self-fulfillment awaiting each of them in this feel-good cheery tale. Mr. Peck's stylish story offers not only pleasant diversion but a vicarious boost, and an urge to cheer, "Go, girls!" - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: Likeable and entertaining
Review: I found "London Holiday " to be a light, quick and totally delightful read. Mrs Smith-Porter is a woman who has reinvented herself and has learned by experience, the ins and outs of the antique business.She runs a very up-market Bed and Breakfast establishment in one of the better parts of London.Three old school friends , Julia a very successful interior designer, Les, a St.Louis society matron and Margo, a school teacher, who are all at a crossroad in their lives, decide to holiday together and stay at Mrs. Smith-Porters B.andB. During the holiday,the course of their lives is altered forever in different ways, the catalyst being the enigmatic Mrs.Smith-Porter. This is an absorbing little book which I thoroughly enjoyed and I can't wait to get to a bookstore to find more by this talented author.
Rating: 
Summary: For women only, no heavy lifting
Review: I was surprised to note that the author was male, for the book is female oriented all the way. Not a total waste of time, sort of mental junk food for a rainy weekend. If you enjoy a literate romance, you could do worse, I suppose.
Rating:
Summary: Rainy Day Perfect!
Review: Peck's novel is wonderful read for nice rainy day next to the crackling wood fireplace. The characters are vivid and visual with color and personality. It was one of the books that is a semi-quick and enjoyable read. Perfect book for a rainy day!
Rating:
Summary: Rainy Day Perfect!
Review: Peck's novel is wonderful read for nice rainy day next to the crackling wood fireplace. The characters are vivid and visual with color and personality. It was one of the books that is a semi-quick and enjoyable read. Perfect book for a rainy day!
Rating:
Summary: A fun, light read
Review: Remember the old "Calgon, take me away" commercial? Well this is the book that the woman in the tub should have been reading. A light read, a fun fantasy, a holiday in itself. The author gets points for characterization; the landlady was fascinating and one of the husbands was so irritating that I wanted to smack him! Not to worry, there's a happy ending. A pleasant break from reality.
Rating:
Summary: Fun reading for armchair Anglophiles
Review: This delightful novel is a mini-holiday you can take when you are not able to hop on the next flight to London. Lovers of London will delight in the dead-on references to addresses and locations (the bed and breakfast featured in the book is located in Radnor Walk, a real street in Chelsea). Antiques lovers will gobble up the descriptions of antique furniture and antiques markets. Fans of "women's novels" will enjoy the story of the lifelong friendship of the three protagonists. Travelers will want to go stay at Mrs. Smith-Porter's bed and breakfast, the most exclusive B&B in London. While perhaps not a "serious" or "important" novel, this book will be the clotted cream on your scone--a treat that you will savor and remember with delectation.
Rating:
Summary: Ya-ya sisterhood on Prozac
Review: This pleasant if unremarkable novel feels a bit like it's been done before: childhood friends who grew up in the south get together to deal with their past ghosts and present lives. Throughout the book, I kept having a sense of deja vu, as if I'd encountered similar scenes, or characters, or plot lines before. The most memorable and original character was the British landlady, Mrs. Smith-Porter, and chapter 1, devoted entirely to her, is by far the best chapter in the book. Which illustrates a second major flaw: the uneven quality of its writing. How can the same person who wrote this silly description of love/lust - "She felt dams breaking gently throughout her regions" - also have written this insight into vacationing - "People often broke under the strain of traveling for pleasure"? Unlike "Yaya Sisterhood" and its ilk, this book takes a much gentler and less intense approach to the main characters' troubles. The reader will find London tea, handsome titled Englishmen, country gardens, double decker buses and faded antiques to water down the nasty childhood memories or present emotional crises. Like a finger sandwich or a piece of angel food cake, "London Holiday" is sweet and pleasant enough - but hardly filling.
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