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Title: The Secret Ingredient
ISBN: 0312261721
Author:
Jane Heller
Publicate Date: 2002-02-09
Publish: 2002-02-09
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.01
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| Customer Review: |
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1: I'm amazed!
I'm amazed at the number of reviewers who did not feel let down by this book. I read and read voraciously, wanting to find out just what sort of mickey the girls had slipped to their husbands. Even a fake botanical name made up by Ms. Heller would have satisfied me. For some reason this was very important to me, to know what was in the herbal concoction. And when the book ended without any real mention being made of this, I was so upset I actually sent Ms. Heller an email about it. (Of course she graciously responded.) All that reading and no payoff! Once in a while a book leaves me hanging this way and it's easy to spend a few days fuming about it, because of the hollow feeling where closure should be.
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2: THE PERFECT ENTERTAINMENT COCKTAIL OF REALISM AND FANTASY
I enjoyed every minute of this book. Elizabeth, our shero, wishes to turn her husband into the dashing romantic hero he used to be instead of the workaholic and sofa spud he is now, so she goes to an herbal healer who gives her a formulation of herbs and nutrients to slip into her husband's breakfast juice. The nutritional aid works -- too well, as hubby Roger goes from slob, to dashing caballero, to fault-finding self-absorbed, narcissistic control freak. Desparate to get her old hubby back, she and a friend get ino all kinds of misadventures and hilarious fiascoes. Think Lucy and Ethel meet the Desperate Housewives. I could see this as a movie with Debra messing as Liz and Ricardo Antonio Chavira as Roger. Great stuff!
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3: my first by Heller... she gets better
This was a fun and cute plot; got a few good laughs out of it and she had slight depth and charm with it. However, the plot is a little "out there" so it's not her finest. I'm glad I continued to read her however because some of her other titles have been very enjoyable. I like her conversational tone of writing.
Others I like: Whitney Gaskell, Beth Kendrick, Alesia Holliday, Janet Evanovich & Emily Giffin
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4: Not So Realistic but Much Fun
This is a story of wishing for something you don't have and then actually getting it. Elizabeth Baskin is a perfectionist. Because of this perfectionism, Elizabeth finds her marriage to her not so perfect husband failing in several places. Elizabeth metthe man of her dreams when he rescued her on highway 405. She knew 8 months into the relationship this was the person she wanted to marry and spend the rest of her life with. Unfortunately, 6 years into the marriage things are starting to lack. Her husband, Roger, has started to lose his zest for life. He doesn't want to go out and do anything anymore, doesn't want to make love to her and has been working himself ragged as a real estate attorney. One day Elizabeth just can't deal with her life and the way things have been going for her and Roger so she confides in her sister her problems. Her sister suggests a high profile doctor who is a "magician" to the stars. He is said to have an herbal cure for what is happening to her husband and promises things will improve. Elizabeth plucks up her courage to go to him and hands him a small fortune for this miracle cure. This is where things spiral out of control. Thinking one of the herbal packets aren't enough, Elizabeth and her friend Clover (whom she met at the doctor's office) give their husbands three packets and end up getting the men of their dreams. Things start out good but plunge into despair from there. The story is a wild ride of breaking and entering, jail stays, chases through hotels trying to find the antidote to the life enhancement.
There is a lot of hillarity but also life lessons many of us can take to heart. I have loved Jane Heller's work and have read many of her books in the past. This one made me laugh and made me sigh with understanding a lot of the things the characters went through. There are many more facets to this book and overall it is a funny and wild ride through what every woman would have happen to their mates.
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5: Not For Me
I have read quite a few other books by Jane Heller all of which I really enjoyed. However, this one just didn't do it for me. I really couldn't get into the notion of slipping something into someone's drink behind their back - especially someone you really love. It just left me cold, which may sound a little over-morale - but there it is.
Also I thought Elizabeth petulant and spoilt - I get the story is based on her issue of being a perfectionist to the extreme - but really all the designer clother, gourmet food, weekly massages etc on top of the woe is me my husband dropped a crumb and hasn't stroked my ego today/lately, (whose does ?!), made her sound really stuck up.
Same goes for Clover.
Poor old Roger and Bud never had a chance with those two.
Then the ending with the bear and the rattlesnake ... please.
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