Reviews
What an emotional experience this was. Following the fortunes of the Preston family starting in the 1960’s. Children Lily, Mags and Artie have lived a nomadic life as their father Jack, who is in the military, moves his family around the world. Together with his awful mother Emma he physically and mentally abuses his wife… Read more “Geraniums”
It was eye-opening to see how easily a young mind can be affected by even just words. How it got affected through the abuse and actions of others was harsh to see. How a mind can adapt to these abnormal new situations is wild to me. It shouldn’t be necessary for it to happen, but… Read more “Geraniums”
“While I did not know how long a lifetime might be, I put the mathematics of it all out of my head, safe in the knowledge that even if Mom came back in a different shape and size, I would recognise her. I would know her by the geraniums she would grow.” We meet middle-child… Read more “Mine”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit odd we don’t live in the same place, same address, yet we’re married and trying to have a little one?” Yes! This quote pretty much sums up how I felt about this story. Honestly, I understand Sophie being in her early forties newly married and wanting to have a… Read more “Mine”
Geraniums is a fast paced book thick with family drama and tension told from main character Lily’s perspective. The tone of the book is set from the very beginning as you get glimpses of Emma’s life, Lily’s grandmother, which lends to the reasons she is the way she is. Controlling. Then you have Jack, Emma’s… Read more “Geraniums”
Well, this one was a bit of a rollercoaster of a read. So many emotions! Mostly rage, as the author writes with such brutal honesty. I loved Lily, and rooted for her all the way. This book was difficult to read at times, and I found myself quite perplexed at the abusiveness of the family.… Read more “Geraniums”
What an utterly, emotional and compelling story! From the first page, I was immediately hooked! The protagonist, Lily is a strong character as she’s been dealt with bad cards throughout her life, yet always gets back up and rises. It’s set in America, during the 1960s. It reads like a TV drama. Highly… Read more “Geraniums”
My thoughts 💭… This is my 2nd book by Marlene, and much like the first, it is a brilliantly plotted, well structured, compelling, and emotionally written story. Following the main protagonist, Lily, as she navigates life under the dark cloud of mental, physical, and emotional abuse and the coercive control of her father and grandmother… Read more “Mine”
When is enough, enough? High-powered Sophie Taylor thinks baby-making can happen on the fly. Managed alongside work, marriage, an MBA and travel, she decides to launch Project Bébé . Successful at everything, Sophie expects and always scores one hundred per cent. That is until the shocking failure of one fertility treatment after the next. As… Read more “Mine”
The treatment of Lily, her older sister Mags and younger brother Artie, meted out by their emotionally scarred father Jack Preston and his horrendous mother Emma is insane. I know Jack suffers from PTSD, but the way he treats them is unforgivable. Emma, crippled in her back by childhood polio, is a monster. My grandmother… Read more “Geraniums”
Having recently read (and adored) Mine by this author, I was really looking forward to reading this book too. I knew that it would be another heart-wrenching story, but the writing style is just so compelling that I knew that I’d still really enjoy this one too. This book deals with some really sensitive issues… Read more “Geraniums”
The female protagonist in the novel Mine is smart, perceptive and goal oriented. She has a deep desire to achieve an MBA degree, succeed in business and an even stronger, deeper longing to have a child. It’s not easy for the main character. She’s an anomaly amongst her younger peers in grad school, faces unwanted… Read more “Barbara Katz”
I loved this story! Five stars. Books about adoption are one of my favorite types to read. Hauser delivers a beautiful book about a couple’s desire to have a baby and the steps they go through to get there. It was interesting to read about adoption that was not based in the US. Thanks to… Read more “I loved this story!”
Mine is so much more than a story about a woman’s struggles with infertility. It’s a story of love, ambition, education, career, marriage, devastation, and fulfillment, all told in 314 compulsively readable pages. When Sophie Tucker and Tucker (Tõnis) Mägi decide to marry and start a family, they live in Rye, New York. Tucker inherits… Read more “What an amazing story!”
It has been quite some time since I have read a novel that was so gripping. I read it over the weekend and was caught up in the beautifully depicted world of Lily and her very dysfunctional family. And yet, it is very different from other novels about dysfunctional families. There is an attempt to… Read more “A compulsive read”
I read it in two sittings and couldn’t put it down! Wonderful characters that have you fully invested in their journey from page one. Narrator Lily’s triumph against all odds is very moving and had me weeping out loud at points. Highly… Read more “Geraniums – wonderful characters”
“Geraniums” is a poignant, heart-wrenching tale of an American family’s travails through the 1960s. Initially the three children, narrated through middle child Lily, are blissfully happy living in Europe while their GI father Jack is posted a road. When they Jack sent back to mid-West America his psychological and physical abuse of each member of… Read more “Geraniums is – poignant and heart-wrenching”
A well structured and quick read, this novel pulsates with family drama and enough significantly terrifying events that you’ll find yourself rooting for Lily and her siblings to make it to adulthood. With an underlying faith in education, a stalwart high school sweetheart and through the kindness of strangers, Lily navigates the weak and narcissistic… Read more “Geraniums pulsates with family drama”
Geraniums is a mesmerizing story of family strife and enduring belief. The main character, Lily, manages to deal with a manipulating grandmother, an abusive father and separation from her mother whom she believes she will be reunited with someday. Lily is resilient, capable, and talented. As the ever-increasing conflicts get tougher and tougher, Lily only… Read more “Geraniums is mesmerizing”
The author writes with an unselfconscious brutal honesty. This is an intense forensic exploration of a dysfunctional family. I was totally enthralled and appalled and couldn’t put the book down until I found out what happened to Lily and her siblings. I was reminded of Flowers In The Attic (the Virginia Andrews classic, not the… Read more “NetGalley”
Geraniums (The Book Guild) is Marlene Hauser’s second novel. It’s an uncomfortable story of a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family in the US with a father in the forces and his ever-interfering mother for whom no one is good enough for her boy. Certainly not her daughter in law who is despatched to… Read more “Geraniums – an uncomfortable story”
Lily’s life is a struggle. Geraniums is a beautifully written and compelling literary fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed. Marlene Hauser has a style that ensnares the reader because of her ability to step inside the minds of her characters and enable the reader to experience, through them, the events of the novel. There’s a painterly… Read more “Geraniums 1”
“Once again the beauty of the words you penned touch my soul… recalled for me the lines from T.S. Eliot’s “Little… Read more “”
“Entertaining and well-written. It was a book that I couldn’t put down. Pretty awesome summer read. I read it in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have no words to describe the emotions it evoked. Definitely placed in my to be read again pile. Will recommend it to my book club for my friends… Read more “”
“My goodness. Off-Island may be more novella than a novel in length, but it packs the most enormous punch. The quality of Marlene Hauser’s writing is so sophisticated… At times I found it an uncomfortable read, but I also found it fascinating, thought-provoking, compelling and beautifully written. I think Off-Island by Marlene Hauser is a… Read more “”
“Your newsletter never fails to inspire and stimulate ideas! I really enjoy every one of them, and several still linger with me months later… Very touching.. continue to inspire… Read more “Blogs”