Dancing at the Harvest Moon

Rating:
Summary: Maggie's Strength is Revealed in Leaving Her Old Life Behind
Review: "Dancing at Harvest Moon" explores Maggie's feelings at being betrayed by her husband and her reaction to it. The character is courageous and bold as she strikes out a new life in the "old life" she experienced many years ago before she married. It's different than what she expects and there are a few surprises along the way. I felt a closeness to Maggie in her vulnerability but more so in her ability to pick herself up in the wake of an unpleasant reality to forge ahead into a future she will mold. K.C. McKinnon (Cathie Pelletier) describes the setting wonderfully- one almost feels like a warmly invited guest to the locale. As the story unfolds, the supporting characters draw out more of who Maggie really is and in who she lets herself become. It's the story of a woman and her search for her true self and a chance at happiness.

Rating:
Summary: A very good read
Review: After reading all the reviews I thought I would give my own. To the cynics, this book wasn't meant to be Shakespeare, it was meant to give one an escape and to lighten one's heart. That's what it did for me. This book was very well written, I could see everything the author described. I only wish Maggie hadn't waited so long to go to Eliot. I didn't try to compare this book with Bridges, the two stories are different, and shouldn't be compared. I liked the story, and read it in one day, like others, I just couldn't put it down. After I read the book, I found myself thinking of my own first love, and what would've happened if I had stayed with him. I am going to read other books the author has written under both names. I'm sure they will be just as good. Thank you Catherine Pelliter (aka K. C. McKinnon) for writing this beautiful book!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story!
Review: DANCING AT THE HARVEST MOON made my fantasies of rekindling old flames go sky-high. How I would love to be able to do what Maggie did! I cheered for her for finding herself and learning how to be herself and laughed at the levity provided by her friend, Claire. This story is TRUE romance.

Rating:
Summary: It will take you away
Review: I enjoyed this book about a woman's "mid-life crisis." It was refreshing to find a story with a female lead character who was a mature woman, who re-evaluates her life, who finds love, who accepts love. It reminds us that we deserve to be fully alive even as we get older, even when we think we have to be held back because we are role models to younger people, to our children. I enjoyed the story and I'm not in that age range (I'm much younger). While the author sometimes stopped me with her writing style (I would've been marked down in college for using some of the grammar and punctuation that she did), her overall style is gentle, flowing. It makes for a sweet story, a relaxing read. I've already sought out other books by her.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable story
Review: Maggie is a forty-five year old woman with two children that are on their own, and a husband that has abandoned her for a much younger woman. Her life is falling apart. Then she finds them. The letters are all bound together and still smell like her first loves cologne...the one person whose heart she broke. The letters bring back all the memories of their past together and the time they spent at Harvest Moon during the summers. She decides to go back to Canada, back to her first love, Rob. However, things are not as she thought they would be. After buying the Harvest Moon and deciding to remodel, she finds out that her first real love has died. But he lives on in his son, Eliot, and soon Maggie is wondering how she is falling in love with her first love's son, and what she should do.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it for others who have enjoyed other books by K.C. McKinnon (who is Cathie Pelletier). It is a book about love and relationships and has a very happy ending.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this little book....
Review: so much so, that I did something I almost never do: I reread it immediately after finishing it!

If you liked "The Bridges of Madison County" you will like this book. In fact, IMO, this book is better than that one -- the plot line is very different, and VERY intriguing and thought-provoking.

If you're a female, I think you will identify with the female protagonist, and love the male protagonist -- who can ask for anything more from a book? (But this book is NOT only for females; it's a well-told story, VERY engrossing -- so what's not also for a man to like?!)

Hurry, go and get it, you won't be sorry!

Rating:
Summary: Okay, could've been better...
Review: The author of this novel is supposedly a respected literary novelist, using the pseudonym K.C. McKinnon. Though I haven't read Ms. McKinnon's other works, it gave me pause - I wondered why she felt the need to use a pseudonym at all. And then I read the book.

The premise of the story interested me - the story of a 40-something divorcee trying to get her life back on track emotionally after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. The woman, Maggie McIntyre, finds herself reflecting on her past and thinking about her first love, Robbie. She even goes so far as to travel to Canada in hopes of tying up loose ends with Robbie and perhaps reliving the bittersweet memories of a few summers in the 1960's.

This was believable - who hasn't reached their late 30's/early 40's and reflected with fondness and regret for the past? I read on eagerly under the assumption that Maggie would discover what we all know to be true, you can't go back to the past. Things are never the same as they were back then.

And to some extent, Maggie does discover this. However, she meets Robbie's son, Eliot, and the story begins to teeter and finally topple into the ridiculous.

Ms. McKinnon's writing style is smooth, though at times pretentious - so much name-dropping of literary authors and quoting of dull poems and songs. The author also is quite repetitious - continually mentioning Robbie's love of nature, the cozy Victorian house in Kansas City, the special songs in the jukebox. YAWN!

And the drawings at the beginning of each chapter are very childlike and not very impressive - they detract from the (limited) storyline.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this little book....
Review: When I first starting reading this book, I knew it was made into a movie as I was reading it then I remember I did see the movie. I think I would have love this book if the plot was different, I couldn't get pass the fact that, Maggie fell in love with her first love's son it wasn't the age difference, I wouldn't mind if she fell in love with a younger guy not having nothing to do with her first love son's sorry this book didn't do it for me.