Rating: 
Summary: sigh
Review: I love a book that can capture me the way this one did - from the moment I opened Jimmy's Girl to the very last line I was in Emily's and Jimmy's world, if I closed the book on a melancholy note - i was sad until I picked it up again... Throughout this book I giggled out loud, I sighed, I felt loss, sadness and the sobriety of the truth. It was such an indulgence and I loved every minute - I would definitely recomend this book!!
Rating:
Summary: ****Amazing****
Review: I loved this book! It was so romantic! I couldn't put it down, yet I didn't want it to end! It is written beautifully. The characters become your friends. You can feel their pain and their joy. It is both funny and sad without trying to be either. When the book was over I felt like I had lost a good friend. I have recommended it to all my friends, and any of them that have read it have also loved it; mothers AND daughters. It is a timeless , beautiful story. I can't wait to see what this promising new authors next book is about.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost works but falls flat...
Review: I picked this one up with great eagerness, wanting to know what happened to two ex-lovers who met again later in life. Would they see their younger selves reflected in each others' eyes? Or would they find they'd grown apart?
While the author answers these questions, somehow the people in this book just didn't come alive to me. They seemed flat stereotypes, not real, vibrant people. I found myself growing impatient to find out "What happened" but there was way too much space given to the build-up before the reunion of Emily and Jimmy (her high school sweetheart) and not enough focus on their time together.
Also, each chapter is devoted to the SAME event told by either Emily or Jimmy's point of view. I found this tedious to slog through and somehow irritating as well. In short, this one left me cold....although I managed to stick with it till about halfway through the book.
Rating:
Summary: compelling
Review: I started to read this on my commuter train and was really annoyed when we got to my station (that's the true sign of a good book). I just found myself getting more and more deeply involved in the story, the people, the relationship, the outcome. I think the author has done a wonderful job at writing something that is so hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Not to bad...
Review: I thought this book was alright. I think my main problem with it was that I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Not even a little. Emily is 47 yrs. old (I'm 23), has 4 kids (I have none), and her marriage is in a rutt after 20+ yrs. (I've only been married for a year). The only thing I could identify with was we both live in Connecticut. It just wasn't a stimulating book.All Emily can think about is the love of her life Jim, whom she hasn't seen in 30 yrs. They had a 4 month summer fling back in 1967 and she feels he's the 'one-that-got-away'. Anyway, she tracks him down and they make plans to get together, and the story goes from there (I don't want to give anything away, so I won't elaborate). When I finished this book I thought, well, that was nice I guess, but I also felt it was kinda a waste of time. I didn't really get anything out of it. When I closed the book I though, well, another book read, and that was that. I didn't give it another thought. A good read if your looking for a 'filler' book, but don't sit down and expect anything great...you'll be disapointed.
Rating:
Summary: First Love..Last Love
Review: I'm usually a reader of best sellers. I grab the latest paperback from the grocery store shelf and read a few chapters when I find the time. It takes me forever, since I only manage to find snippets of uninterrupted time here and there. So it was a bit unusual for me in the first place to search for a book in hardcover by a newly published writer. I knew Jimmy's Girl was about finding a first love. Being the romantic that I am, how could I resist? And so it was with fingers crossed that I picked up Jimmy's Girl and began reading. WOW! Two hours later....I never put it down until I finished the last word. Stephanie Gertler spins a tale that actually left me speechless. She spoke to my heart. She touched my soul. Her story of a woman, married with children, finding the need for something..anything..to rekindle those feelings of first love, passion, hope, and the excitement that one feels waking up to another day in love. Even with a husband of 25 years. I look forward to reading a lot more of Gertler's work.
Rating:
Summary: Jimmy's Girl
Review: Jimmy's Girl is the best book I have read in the past few years. It is a wonderful romance -- a beautiful journey to recapture a love lost long ago. Emily's quest takes us a step further than our imaginations would dare to go without her gentle and detailed urging. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves an intriguing story told with breathtaking imagery and revelation.
Rating:
Summary: Ambivalent
Review: Jimmy's girl is the story of a teenage love affair between Emily Hudson and Jimmy Moran in the summer of 1967 just before Jimmy ships off to Vietnam. Thirty years later, feeling unfufilled in her current situation and still wondering "what if" Emily decides to contact Jimmy. The two do meet up again in Washington D.C. and spend a weekend together. Although they are in love with each other, neiter is willing to give up their current spouse or children to be with the other. It would be too hurtful to the others. Eventually they just grow apart again. The chapters are alternately narrated by Emily & Jimmy showing how each perceives different events and conversations they have had. Ambivalent. That's the only accurate way to describe the way I feel about this book. It wasn't a nail biting, sit on the edge of your chair page tuner, but it wasn't boring either. It was just there. I didn't dislike the characters, but I wasn't all too concerned about them either. I did experience the "I can't wait til this is over so I can read something good" feeling a couple of times while reading this, but for the most part I could just take it or leave it. This may just be an age thing. While love is universal to all ages, this seems to be a book very much talking to the baby boomer generation, of which I am not a member. I would maybe recommend it to someone of my parent's generation, but never to someone in mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising, but falls short
Review: Jimmy's Girl is the story of two people who look back to their teen romance to fill a hole that is missing in their lives 30 years later. The story is told in alternating chapters from Jimmy's view and then Emily's view so the reader can see the differences in man vs. woman perspective. I like the concept, but felt the effect fell short in that the differences weren't written strongly enough to capture any real significance. The shortcoming leaves the reader feeling like they are reading a recap of what they just read in the previous chapter. It also seems that the book is weighed just as heavily on what the experience of war is like for a soldier as much as it is on trying to dig up a lost romance and the romance is definitely the more intriguing part of the story. I was also somewhat disappointed with the choices that the characters made, but in honesty they are probably realistic choices. The premise of this novel was excellent, but I felt that there was too much missing to make it as good as it could have been.
Rating: 
Summary: Unlocking the past...
Review: Jimmy's Girl is the story of two people who never really had closure when their relationship ended in 1967. Now, it is the present, and Emily Hudson decides that something in her life is missing. She has an ongoing career as an artist and four children whom she adores, but her marriage has lost its spark. Emily thinks back to the days she spent with her boyfriend Jim Moran before he was shipped off to Vietnam, and all the wonderful times they had together. On a whim, she looks him up. Jim, now married and a father, welcomes Emily back into his life, for he, too, feels that his is missing that special something. Jim and Emily agree to meet for a weekend in Washington D.C., where they rediscover what they had and learn the answers to questions that had contributed to the downfall of their relationship. This is a vivid tale of the Vietnam era and its aftermath, propelled along by the innocence of first love. Stephanie Gertler gives both Jim and Emily's point of view throughout the novel as they think back and look ahead, wondering what it was that tore them apart, and if the opportunity will ever come to rekindle thier romance.
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