Two Worlds (Öteki Dünya) itibaren içinde LIT biçim

Anisia Gorchkov anisiagorc19b4 — I didn't mean to read this book. I just wanted to know see what the seven basic plots were! But I devoured the first 300+ pages in a way that made me realize I just might read all 700. (It's just so lucid! With all this yummy discussion of well-known stories from throughout the ages, FOR all ages . . . ) The next 150 pages or so have made me increasingly uneasy, as we discuss all the ways in which stories can go "wrong"--AND what this says about their authors. Not to mention us as a society. AND as we also discuss in depth a number of "failed" stories (of the violent and explicit type I normally avoid; so reading recaps of those was upsetting on another level). For one thing, it's just more fun to think about what makes great stories work than to go negative. This author also feels no compunction about reading his thesis right into these other authors' personal lives, issues, failed marriages (or lack of marriages), the way they died. And the big ideas are getting repetitive. But I'm still on board . . . I inherently believe storytelling should have some moral value, which helps. Even if I don't find the concluding few hundred pages as illuminating as the first, I'd still recommend this book. Seriously. Other "classic" books on plot and archetypes may have better prepared me for this book, but this really is the one. Caveat: I find myself continually distancing myself from some of the blatant, gendered terminology used. I'm familiar with the whole "inner feminine" and "inner masculine" concept from other psyche texts, and the idea that everyone (male or female) needs to balance both in their personalities is great. (I once wrote a 35-page paper using those ideas!) But I'm not sensing this author cares to make any distinctions b/t these terms and his real-world politics. The farther in you read, the clearer it becomes: He's saying exactly what he's saying.

Aura Wong auraowng — there are not many books that fall onto this shelf... this one was soooooo dry, despite the water theme of the first 30 pages.

Mara Uboldi muboldib520 — Originally posted at Romance Around the Corner Susan Mallery has created a wonderful town. Because this is an ongoing series I think is very important not only to create good storylines but also to have a perfect background, otherwise it would be very easy to get bored. Fool’s Gold is a wonderful place to set these stories and that is why I’m very happy to see that Susan isn’t ready to move out of town yet. Only Yours is book two in this new trilogy featuring the Hendrix sisters. Montana has been trying to find herself for a while now. Unlike her very driven sisters she didn’t really know what she wanted to do in life until she met Max and his dogs. Now she has finally found her niche training therapy dogs, and she loves it. After a very disastrous first encounter involving an unruly puppy and the hospital’s pediatric burn unit, she meets Dr. Simon Bradley. This guy is not only the most beautiful man she has ever seen but the crankiest as well (although after what the dog does he has every reason to be mad). Simon also has a terrible scar in half his face. Despite the very bad first impression they do feel attracted to each other, but Simon has more scars than the ones you can see in his body and so the road to their happily ever after won’t be an easy one. This book had so many wonderful things going that I don’t really know where to start. Montana was a great heroine. It must have been very hard for her to see her sisters succeed and know what they wanted while she was kind of drifting and trying new things to find her place in life, but instead of feeling sorry for herself, she picks herself up and throws herself into every new adventure to see if that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She didn’t let her successful sisters overshadow her and she was never jealous. I think that lots of people can relate to her because sometimes figuring out who you are can be really hard. I loved to see how at home she felt with the dogs and what a loving person she was. She was the perfect match for Simon and the perfect companion for all the kids that are a very important part of the book. Simon was an intriguing and appealing hero. He had a personality that reminded me a bit of a person with Asperger Syndrome. He was very smart, painfully awkward with people, ambitious and confident in his ability as a doctor, he was brutally honest, he only had one friend and I had never seen a hero in such need of someone to love him. He goes around the world helping children but never staying in one place more than necessary. There’s a reason why he has so many scars, both physical and psychological, and it was one of the saddest and most painful stories I have read in a long time. I loved him because he was strong in some aspects but vulnerable in others. Susan said in an interview that this was a Beauty and the Beast story where the hero was both beauty and beast, and that’s the best description you can get. Since the book’s hero is a reconstructive surgeon who specializes in burn children we spend a huge part of the book in the hospital. Because of that aspect this book could have been a crying-fest but Susan managed to show us some very sad situations in a positive way, it wasn’t painful to read, it was actually uplifting. This story deals with some pretty dark subjects but it does it in a way that says that we can overcome adversity. I had a hard time choosing my favorite thing about this book, but it has to be the dogs. I always love a good story with animals and this one had them in spades. My favorite was Cece the poodle. She does this really cute thing where she angles herself towards you butt first, they call it her “you can pick me up” position, it was adorable! I have a cat, every time I come near him he does this thing where he shows me his claws and hisses, I call it his “if you pick me up I’ll cut you” position, equally effective as Cece’s but not as cute… Overall this was a wonderful book, it was funny, sad, touching and I can’t wait to read the next one. It stands alone well, but all the books in the series (not only this one but the original trilogy as well) are not only loosely connected but are wonderful reads as well, so maybe is best if you read them in order so you can get the whole Fool’s Gold experience. It seems like Susan is setting up the books that will come after this trilogy is done, I’m guessing that Kent, the other Hendrix sibling, will get his own book, so I’m happy to see that once Nevada gets her HEA in the next book we won’t be saying goodbye to Fool’s Gold. Note: ARC provided by NetGalley for review purposes.