November 26th, 2009 — Guest Blogger
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by Mandi of Smexybooks, guest blogger
It is hard to really think of a book, even a movie that has brought tears to my eyes. I’ve had people tell me JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood
books make them cry, or Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series
. Really? I mean, when Wellsie dies it is a bummer, but I was not overly invested in her character. I felt a stronger urge to cry when J.R. Ward didn’t give Butch and Vishous a happily ever after together. I think it comes down to the fact that I am not a super emotional person. One of my good friends likes to tease me about this all the time. Now, this friend will cry while watching an episode of Desperate Housewives
, which I think is nuts. In a way, we even each other out.
However, there is one book in particular and a few movies that I have boo-hooed over a bit. The only book I can ever remember making me cry is The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenager. I find the intensity of the ending of that book so strong, I could not escape from it. I remember breaking down in two parts. First, when Henry meets Alba in the future, when she is on the field trip, and one of them calls Clare (in her present day Henry is already dead) and as she is running towards him he can’t hold on and fades. Clare’s desperation to get to Henry felt so real to me. It just came off the page and hit me hard. And the ending of the book – Clare is 80 and has been waiting for Henry to appear to her one last time. She has been waiting what, 40 years for this moment! And she hears him walking down the hallway towards her….*SOB* While I liked the movie, I will never forgive them for not putting that scene in at the end.
I do tend to cry at movies more – Steel Magnolias got me big time. Why did Shelby (Julia Roberts) have to die?? It wasn’t just her death scene that had my tears going, but the reaction of all the women and the way rallied together. By the way, I totally want to be Dolly Parton’s character in real life, except for the lame husband part.
I cried at the end of The Family Stone too, when Diane Keaton’s character had died and the next Christmas the family all shows up and she is not there. When Rachel McAdam’s character starts to decorate the tree by herself…I definitely had some tears.
I also cried at the last episode of Sex and the City when Carrie meets Big on the bridge in Paris. I think those tears were more because the series was over and that series is an absolute favorite of mine. I want to be Carrie in real life too. Can I combine Dolly Parton and Sarah Jessica Parker into one person? HA – that is who I am! I will be a hairdresser living in a trailer but dressing in the height of New York city styles.
So tell me, what books or movies make you weep a little bit or a lot?
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February 4th, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, Baroness or Viscountess, Book Review, Counts, Marquis, Viscounts, Estranged, G-I, Great Britain, Heiress, Historical Romance
I generally liked this novel. It revolves around how a marriage once destroyed by infidelity can be healed. I have pretty strong views on this subject so I’ll talk about what ruffled my feathers. I’m like Viola, the heroine, at the start of the novel, looking at things in black and white. The author didn’t persuade me to think in gray matter, too bad Viola did. Luckily in the end she got what she deserved – a loving, devoted, adoring husband – but you could have fooled me. I still thought the hero was shy of truly learning how to love at the end of the book. However, you can be the judge.
Viola is the sister of a Duke and at the age of nineteen she knew she was in love with Viscount John Hammond. She also knew that despite the circumstances of his situation, he loved her, not the money she brought with her. How naïve she had been. John knew nothing of love; he was all empty words and passion.
“When unaccompanied by his love, a man’s desire was like the wind. It had no substance, and it was impossible to hold onto.” – pg 186
Now eight going on nine years after their vows, John has come to the decision to get himself an heir. For that, he will need to woo his way back into his wife’s bed. This task would prove impossible until he changed. But can a man like John, change his spots?
In the last ten pages he did. Until then the brute refused to take blame for more than half the novel and managed to in nearly every conversation lay the whole troubled affair at Viola’s feet. This is much like what happens in the movie Something to Talk About
starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.
John broke his vows. Period. The end. Case closed. What kind of man has to hide his dirty deeds behind his innocent wife? In today’s world with all the diseases that can be caught, a man who cheats ought to be charged with attempted murder if he slips back into his wife’s bed (undetected or not) without first having himself checked out thoroughly.
Viola first turns John away from their marriage bed when she learns that he kept a mistress during the entire time he was courting her. All his words of love, adoration, devotion were lies. She might have forgiven him those if the other woman wasn’t involved. After all impoverished lords needed funds and heiresses to make them solvent – he could have learned to love her.
John waits a month and leaves Viola to live a separate life. There he has count them, five, mistresses in the space of the years prior to his most devout attempt at reconciling. He only does it because he needs a legitimate heir to the viscountcy. Viola is the only woman who can grant him this. So once again he plans to use false words to get her into bed and if that doesn’t work the law is on his side and he can force her there.
But in his own words the five mistresses were her own fault for being cold to him. Poor baby. Eventually he says he is sorry for his part in breaking their marriage by using his young nephew to be his buffer. I don’t think Viola had any part to breaking the marriage. Distraught as she was she stayed with him (granted making him take separate sleeping quarters and refusing to allow him to use passion against her to win his way back into her good graces) until he left.
Marriage vows are not a one way street. A man and his needs can be resolved with a hand not another woman or any of her body parts. Fidelity goes both ways. If he required it of her then it was not an unreasonable request for Viola to make of him. John said it was and refused to be sexually blackmailed. Well what the hell was he doing when he refused to promise fidelity but sexually blackmailing his wife?
Has anyone read this book? What do you think?
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Originally posted 2008-10-06 15:07:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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