Reviews for The Good Daughters

The average rating for The Good Daughters based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-23 00:00:00 Peter O'Neil Rating 3.75 The last few books I read were kinda duds for me. I couldn't find the next book to read that I could get it into. I was worried I was falling into a book slump. So naturally, I immediately fell back to a Joyce Maynard book, knowing that I would enjoy it and it would be comforting. The Good Daughters tells the story of two girls, Dana Dickerson and Ruth Plank. The story is told in alternating view points of the girls from a very young age until late in their lives. The story is also about family secrets and how devastating they can be and have such a lasting impact. I don't want to say more to ruin this one. But there was at one point where I figured it out, not completely, but enough to make me squirm. It is quite sad also. I can't say this one would be for everyone due to the subject matter. Overall, I'm glad I read this one but didn't enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed her other books. So I gave it a lower rating than the others. I listened to the audio and one of narrators was Maynard, so I was enthralled (I love to hear her narrations) and the other, the female narrator, sometimes read very, very slow. It was during crucial parts of the story only. There was also a male narrator who both opened and closed the book. In the end, this one really fit the bill for me. I feel rejuvenated in my reading again. Plus, I crossed another Maynard book off of my list.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-12-29 00:00:00 Lauren Beatty SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't read the book and you don't want spoiler, don't read this. The more I thought about, the more I knew I had to change this to a one-star rating. Don't even bother with this book. Here's what really ticks me off about the book -- after getting 3/4 of the way through it, I find out the entire story is based on a stupid, flimsy premise. I figured out pretty early on that the two "birthday sisters" (which is what the one mother called them since they were born on the same day at the same hospital), were actually switched at birth. But the stupid thing is that at least one of the mothers knew it, and the father knew it, and they didn't do anything about it, and the one mother who knew it accepted it. Then what's even more stupid is that the father who knew the babies were switched wanted to keep it that way because he had actually fathered both babies. So here's this man whose character is portrayed as a solid guy, hard-working farmer, and good father, who actually had a one-night stand with a woman, impregnated her, and went home and impregnated his wife. And the wife stood for it? On top of that, the one daughter fell in love was the other daughter's brother and they lived together and had mad, passionate sex - but they were siblings and didn't know it (Of course, it wasn't a surprise to me because I had already figured it out). By the end of the book, it was as if I just watched a really really bad soap opera. So, don't bother with this book - it's a complete waste of time.