MaryPat Hyland

The House With The Wraparound Porch, a novel by Mary Pat Hyland, opens in 1920 and ends in 2005 and tells the story of four generations of a family from New York's Keuka Lake area. The author brings to the reader a beautifully told saga filled with rich details and memorable characters. The heart of this story is family and the complex relationships within it. By using smooth prose, each character comes alive and the reader becomes engrossed in their quest for their own identity.
I found this to be a heartwarming story and well worth reading.

I received this book free of charge through Library Thing and I give this review of my own free will.… (mer)

This is a lovely book about family, legacy, and the little secrets that we keep from the people we love most.

Although there are quite a few characters to try to keep track of, I liked them all (with the exception of Mara-she just seemed a little too eager to please and fit in for my taste). In fact, I felt like each generation could’ve had their own book because they all lived the kind of lives that are seemingly ‘normal’, while underneath there are all kinds of fascinating scandal, intrigue, mystery, and drama.

What I really liked in the book is how the author didn’t stick to a traditional way of telling a story from multiple viewpoints. I think many authors would’ve devoted a chapter to each character’s viewpoint and continually flipped between them all. Mary Pat manages to seamlessly intertwine the lives and the perspectives within chapters and does so without confusion and without jarring the reader.

As each generation passes on in the book it brought to mind my own family. I know one or two of the family ‘secrets’, but I wonder just how many more have been buried forever.… (mer)

The last thing Elaina Brady's mother said to her before she left the family was Men like pie. And with those words and the knowledge on how to make pie Maria walked away from her 2 little girls, her husband and the diner that had been in her family. Years later while Elaina's sister Dee Dee has a life outside the diner and the town Elaina is still there baking pies and living with her dad. Then 9-11 happens and everything changes for her. She meets some new people and decides that life is too short to play it safe. But has she made the right decisions.

I loved this book and could not put it down. I loved the characters and the fact that Mary Pat Hyland captured the mood of everyday people on 9-11 and the months afterwards. Do yourself a favor and get this book. I know one thing for certain is that I will be reading this book over and over again.… (mer)

From: Lilac Wolf and Stuff

The cover is so bright, that's what caught my attention in the Facebook group, Review Seekers when author MaryPat Hyland asked for reviews for her book. I looked it over, but for some reason I was expecting something different from this tale. Right away it goes into the tragedy of 9/11 and I admit that my eyes rolled and I nearly put the book down. Honestly I can't take the rabid patriot behavior surrounding that day, and was afraid this book would be full of it. Pleasantly surprised that she dealt with it in a way that it was a fact of life, and was honest about the way that so many people became paranoid and even more racist against people of Arab decent than ever before.

Elaina, even though she has lived a VERY sheltered life, was upset and horrified by the events, but refused to judge all people by that one day. In fact, across the street 3 cousins opened a car dealership/repair shop. Elaina became good friends with Zahir, the young man who ran the repair business. One day when Elaina was stuck by the side of the road, Zahir was the only one who stopped by to help her. They became fast friends and Elaina and her father defended and recommended Zahir to all their customers.

Elaina also befriends Rhey, a homosexual (yes this is an important characteristic because it's the only thing keeping them from being a couple - lol) artist from New York, who has returned home after a recent break-up to open a gallery at the old drive-in theater. Rhey is a lively character, and brings out the best in Elaina. He is constantly pushing her to be more spontaneous. When he goes on a month long cruise with his aunt, Elaina meets a sailor and elopes. Oh, poor Elaina has no idea who she just married. Part of her decision was based on her sister eloping with a friend and fellow cellist from Germany. It gets bad really fast, and the guy uses the "I'm a vet" line far too often that people start wondering if he really is.

I could not like Elaina's mother. She ran off without a word to anyone with the first nice guy to walk in the diner because she felt trapped. Did she bother discussing that with Walt - seems like he only bought the diner because it was in her family. That really annoyed me because she ditched not only him but her 2 girls. And while she said it was just because of feeling trapped, did she write the girls, call them, send them cards and gifts? Nope, not a thing until DeeDee (the sister) calls her to invite her to the marriage party Walt is throwing. And even then she was reluctant about returning, it just came off as so selfish. And I'm not sure if that was intentional or not.

The Terminal Diner has a great pace and while it is only 162 pages, it all fits in perfectly. Although I would have liked more romance between Walt (Elaina's father) and Angie - a long-time waitress in the diner.

I enjoyed the story, one of those coming of age tales that we all love so much.… (mer)