She's Up to No Good: A Novel

Jenna experiences more life in a few weeks with her grandmother than in the previous few years. Evelyn is called “a force of nature” because no one can completely control her. She always gets what she wants in the end. Jenna has been used to just settling for what is close by or handy or taken for granted.. Evelyn takes her on a wild ride of discovery, introducing her to people and places and history to help her come out of the shadows of a failed marriage into an exciting new life filled with of possibilities. Jenna lets go of anger and fear and finds redemption and joy.In the acknowledgements, the author seems to doubt how accomplished she actually is, but this reader is astonished how well she kept all the loose ends under control to keep from losing any of the hidden treasure. It is amazing to read a book that feels like it took a couple of years of planning to manage its complexity and then read that it was crafted in 14 weeks.I can’t imagine any reader not getting enthralled with the character of Evelyn and her approach to life and her effect on EVERYONE she meets.The hero of the novel is Tony, the unattainable man who is always helping others and suffering his own losses. He is a Portuguese Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper.If you can’t enjoy this journey, maybe you should stick to Physics textbooks to pass your time.

I love SGC’s writing style and the characters are easy to love. I give this story a 3.5 (but rounded to 4)!

I absolutely love this story! It started off a bit slow at first but once we got to the grandma’s storyline in the past, I was hooked! The characters were well written and I really felt for the female characters. Being a “product of their time” and having to marry Jewish made the story compelling not just for the main female character but for the rest of the female characters in the family as well, even the mom though I wish we could’ve gotten into her past a little more. I want to know more of what happened there. Tony and Evelyn’s love story gave me all the feels and I can’t get over how things worked out for them. Overall, great story! Loved all the characters and I appreciate that the author didn’t make the grandma overtly inappropriate. I’m so tired of reading elderly characters that are sexually explicit and inappropriate as a way to…get a laugh? Lastly, only weird thing about this story is how much these characters “shake their head.” It happens so often and made me wonder how much people really do that lol

I'm one who prefers the book to the movie version. However, the "she" referenced by the title screams to be seen and heard. She's determined, devious, frustrating, hilarious and completely lovable...but she makes you work for it! If Bette Davis's Baby Jane and any late Betty Whte character you ever loved had a baby that was raised by Helen Miren's REDS persona, you'd have a blockbuster on your hands. That's the "she" who steps into her granddaughter''s life crises and teaches her how to hold on by letting go. Waiting for the movie.

Had a hard time initially with the back and forth stories. Slow start. But picked up and had a beautiful heartfelt, tearful ending.

I loved the little fishing town of Hereford, Massachusetts right from the beginning. This is about a relationship with Evelyn, the Grandmother, and Jenna, her Granddaughter. They were just such delightful characters as well as the many other family members. It was so comfortable getting to know them as well as learn about their lives. There are definitely many laughs along with some tears. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading about families, their ups and downs, and romance.

It is always hard to get the reader's interest in a character that starts out totally 'blah'. The husband leaving in the first chapter and the protagonist turning into a total 'whimp' is not something that makes me want to read further. Also, presenting the grandmother as a 'horror' the parents are trying to avoid, when these two characters are supposed to carry the story does not help the reader become more involved. The two characters are presented as totally opposite - and remain so throughout the story; even when they do similar things - which does not give the reader much similarity to see them bond about. It appears the author wants the two to get closer as the story progresses, but after the first shift from fear to some respect, the granddaughter just seems to get more understanding for the grandmother; she doesn't change much. She is just dragged through the entire story until near the end.The writing is pretty good, but how the plot is presented needs more work - how much editing was done?I understand why the author chose the alternating timeline style to tell two parallel stories, but it was somewhat choppy. The grandmother is telling the alternate story, but sometimes the time switch isn't part of her narrative and we also seem to get the male character's viewpoint thrown in - which totally undermines the narrative theme.Many authors really have trouble with endings. They seem to quickly tie everything up and the story just comes to a screeching halt. This author seemed to try and avoid this, but the result was too much middle story and plot twists near the end were heavy handed and didn't add to the story. The last meeting with George was totally unnecessary and actually hurt the story - you don't have to tie up all the strings. It's ok to leave the reader wondering about some minor points. The ending did not, in any way, make the great-grandmother more sympathetic or justify the grandmother 'keeping the secret'. The secret certainly didn't explain why Tony and Evelyn's family remained fast friends throughout their lives. This was one very big part of the story the author totally left out - tell us more about the 'why' and less about the more periphery characters.

Great read! Grandma is a hoot. I had a few laugh out loud moments with her antics. Nice break from the darker books we have been reading for our book club. I highly recommend!!

What a fabulous read! I couldn't put it down, and it was just as great as her first novel. An interesting and engaging story that made me laugh, yell and cry. Can't wait for the next one!

A simple story line but well written and did hold my interest. It is always interesting to learn about other cultures but the behaviour of the parents over their daughter’s relationship was an eye opener which I found truly awful. What is it about some religions/cultures that they seek to negate love and drive people apart? I find it difficult to understand as I thought the perspective of religions was to love others, help others etc. Then I thought, well it’s a case of ‘not in my back yard’, as if you demand only such marriages take place as portrayed in this novel you ensure your offspring will perpetuate your religion therefore the powers that be of that religion will hold onto power, simple really but not my idea of a religious purpose more a power hungry political one. So it’s good to have gained something relevant from an enjoyable story.

First I read this book and then I bought the audio and listened to it.The narration was absolutely perfect and the storyline brilliant, funny and romantic.A GREAT BOOK

I enjoyed the storyline, the way it was held together in the past/present toggling. The characters were very interesting, well built; the Jewish culture is brought out in a humorous way. I didn't like the epilogue though, too blunt an ending to a good story.

This was easy reading and the characters were interesting and good fun. On many occasions Evelyn reminded me of my own mother! The ending was predictable but there were lots of episodes along the way that were surprising and unexpected. I have read another book by this author and could identify a style and pattern but nonetheless I did enjoy the book and it often made me smile.