Helen Fairchild finds her life turned upside-down after her husband announces that he is leaving her for another woman and then dies the next day in a freak accident during Pasadena's famed Rose Parade. To make matters worse, Helen discovers that they were on the verge of bankruptcy and she's forced to sell their Pasadena home and find a job to pay her son Aiden's private school tuition. But things turn out well. Helen finds employment with Dr. Patrick O'Neill, an archeologist studying the journals of an excavator of Troy. The book ends on a happy note. This is the first book written by Lian Dolan. I read her second book – Elizabeth the First Wife – several years ago. Both books have a link to Oregon. Elizabeth is set in Ashland during the Shakespeare Festival. Helen was raised just down the street in Sisters, Oregon before marrying and moving to Pasadena. If you need a feel good book. Read Helen of Pasadena. I think that her first book Helen of Pasadena is a bit better than her second - Elizabeth the First Wife. 4.5 starsI listen to Lian's weekly podcast, The Chaos Chronicles and to her and her sisters' podcast, The Satellite Sisters. I wouldn't have picked up this book to read except that I really enjoy Lian's take on the world and she's like a virtual friend who speaks to me via my ipod regularly while I'm in the trenches of housework and running the kid-taxi-service. It was impossible for me to read this book without giving Helen Lian’s voice. (Which was a good fit for the character, in my opinion, although she claims Helen is not an autobiographical character. Hmmm… she certainly could be an embellished upon Lian.)I don't gravitate toward books that aren't urban fantasy/paranormal type books. Chic Lit is generally too fluffy and not enough of an escape for me. Real life fiction is often too REAL for me to escape into. I also have very little time to read a real book printed on paper (and my eyes are starting to fail me, even with my dime-store reading glasses) and prefer to be able to multitask while listening to books via Audible. I didn't expect to like this book all that much - but I did!!I liked this book for reasons completely different from what I'm usually looking for in a story. I found the characters believable, even though my neck of the woods couldn’t be further from the social circles of Pasadena. Helen is likable and relatable; Patrick was sufficiently hunky and real; Helen’s friends are loyal and real; her “enemies” were worthy of my contempt. The story felt real enough, with Helen’s mis-steps and lack of self confidence endearing. Helen’s mother’s perspective was probably the most like my own – as she is rather dumb-founded at the social circle etiquettes and the self-imposed stresses of getting your children into the “Best” private schools to avoid the perceived notion that their children’s futures depend entirely upon acceptance. The romance was somewhat predictable, but engaging and not overly Chic-Lit scripted. I wanted the romance to work out and was only slightly put off by Helen’s inability to recognize that she was worthy of Patrick. All in all, I enjoyed this story of reinvention and found the catty women hilariously dispicable.What has been important personally about the story was that it leads me to reflect upon my life, and how it could be like Helen’s: her social circle of moms, her faith in a stable life and her value to the world.
What do You think about Helena De Pasadena (2012)?
This is a fun read and if you live in Pasadena you'll enjoy it even more...
—Neha
