Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

Cet après midi j'ai terminé "Le Frisson de Minuit" d'Eloisa James
Cette histoire est prenante car assez mouvementée, quelques larmes aussi ont coulé...
J'ai commencé "Plaisirs Interdits" du même auteur...

This afternoon I finished "Le Frisson de Minuit" by Eloisa James
This story is gripping because it's quite eventful, some tears also flowed...
I started "Forbidden Pleasures" by the same author...
 
I have just finished "Stolen Bride" from the McKenzie series. I don't know what to say. It felt as if I had experienced the Battle of Culloden myself. I think I cried through the last third of the book. It was so real. How bravely they fought and stood up for their families, their clans, their servants and even their prisoners. The sense of honour of these people is overwhelming. I am still moved. This book has touched me the most so far, as if I were already one of them. Let's go to the next one... :lkj:
 
Je viens de terminer "Plaisirs interdits" d'Eloisa James...
J'ai bien aimé, histoire très plaisante à suivre, je me suis sentie assez proche de l'héroïne Gaby (qui est aussi le nom d'une de mes quatre chatonnes, ceci explique-t-il cela ?...) au caractère bien trempé...
Il ne me reste plus que trois livres en stock de la série "Les frères Mackenzie" mais je ne les ai pas dans l'ordre...
Je ne sais pas lequel choisir "L'appel des Highlands", "La Duchesse Mackenzie", "Daniel Mackenzie un sacré coquin"...

I just finished "Forbidden Pleasures" by Eloisa James...
I liked it, very pleasant story to follow, I felt quite close to the heroine Gaby (which is also the name of one of my four kittens, does this explain it ?...) with a strong character...
I have only three books left in the "Mackenzie Brothers" series but I don't have them in order...
I don't know which one to choose "The Call of the Highlands", "The Duchess Mackenzie", "Daniel Mackenzie, the rascal"...

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
I have only three books left in the "Mackenzie Brothers" series but I don't have them in order...
I feel a bit the same way. But I think if you've read all the others and know the characters, it's not quite so bad if you're not in quite the right order. But I did a quick search and found this... maybe it can help us. It's more the German titles, but the English ones are underneath. MacKenzie Bücher in der richtigen Reihenfolge - BücherTreff.de
 
Hello All,

SPOILER

I´ve finished the book Seducir un Angel , from Mary Balogh, I just can´t express how I felt all the time I read it , I have been crying a lot, I can´t describe the impact that I feel each time I read about Stephen and how he see the life and manage all the situation with Cassandra, I perceive that the character is such a God person ,his value, love that is not selfish, understand how she was hurt, Some in that line impacted me a lot, I have cried but I cant tell why exactly I need to cry, it is like something inside of me resonate with the story.

Before this book I´ve read - Tempting Harriet-, in that one I was so upset with her, cause she never said what she really wanted in her life or under the circunstances she was in each time, she was so passive in her actions , but I think it resonates with something inside of me, that many times I´ve just let the things happen, and accept them as they are.

I´ve been very depresive this days , with a lot of mix feelings , but they are stronger after read de books, its like many aspects of me are going out, some of them were buried many years ago , feelings of many kinds good and bad. I dont know how exactly to express now, I could let it flow, and back with comments. By Now I wanted to share about this, since its really strong inside of me and more with the last book.
 
Some interesting comments here! And an interview to look forward to.

I must say how appreciative i am for all effort made to present this show.It is worth watching for members who are still on the sideline.
I took three months break and i am now mentally ready to continue reading. Just knocked off At Last Comes Love and Seducing an Angel over the week end from the Huxtable Series. I must say At Last love Comes is my favorite from this series.I was kept on the edge of my seat fully immersed in the different turn of events. After this book i said to myself why had i stopped reading.Guess its justthe male ego still playing its childhood games.
Anyway moving right along to the Proposal until i get Secret Affair to close out the series.
 
I just finished the "Captive Hearts" series by Grace Burrowes. I noticed that there were some plot similarities between the last book, "The Laird" and the two currently available books of Elisa Braden's "Midnight in Scotland" series, i.e. "The Making of a Highlander" and "The Taming of a Highlander." Braden has used this plot device as the pivot from one book to the next. I wonder if anyone else has noted this?

Based on the dates, it looks like Burrowes has borrowed from Braden.

The stories told in the three books of Burrowe's series were riveting, IMO, and dealt with very difficult topics. However, once again, her style of writing and total lack of any real historical sense (knowledge), made it necessary to critically correct mentally throughout. That subtracted somewhat from the enjoyment. But then, so many of these books have that very problem which is only a problem for historical sticklers like me, perhaps. I can set it aside and just get into the dynamic of the tale the author is trying to tell, and do some re-writing and re-telling in my head to smooth the edges a bit, but still... geeze.
 
Sorry I’m going to sideline a bit from the men discussing masculinity.
But wanted to make these notes while fresh in my mind.
I moved from feeling disbelief if ‘men can’t love’ to realising ‘men can’t love me’ to ‘I have no self respect’ to ‘yes I do have sone self respect and self love but I am flawed in many ways and I want to correct what I can’.
All very wordy, but this developed from identifying with the women in these stories. I was horrified to realise that I did not have one iota of the strength of character to deal with the adversity that these women did with dignity and determination. I would have sulked, and moped and become suicidal. I am somewhat disgusted with myself. Now working through the list of things that I have accomplished and achieved against odds, so all is not lost. But it’s all a bit shaky and so wanted to post.
 
Sorry I’m going to sideline a bit from the men discussing masculinity.
But wanted to make these notes while fresh in my mind.
I moved from feeling disbelief if ‘men can’t love’ to realising ‘men can’t love me’ to ‘I have no self respect’ to ‘yes I do have sone self respect and self love but I am flawed in many ways and I want to correct what I can’.
All very wordy, but this developed from identifying with the women in these stories. I was horrified to realise that I did not have one iota of the strength of character to deal with the adversity that these women did with dignity and determination. I would have sulked, and moped and become suicidal. I am somewhat disgusted with myself. Now working through the list of things that I have accomplished and achieved against odds, so all is not lost. But it’s all a bit shaky and so wanted to post.

Hey gottathink,

I have similar views when it comes to the male characters and how they handle the issues in their own life. I think we need to remember to have compassion and patience with ourselves. We have grown up in different times. Speaking for myself, my life has been to easy. Therefore without a consistent level of difficulty through my life, adult life now is probably more difficult than it would have been growing up in more difficult times. Even the c's said we are experiencing the whole, bad times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create weak people cycle. I think though with role models wthin this sort of content, it can inspire us to do better the next time and the next time. Just my 2 cents
 
Sorry I’m going to sideline a bit from the men discussing masculinity.
But wanted to make these notes while fresh in my mind.
I moved from feeling disbelief if ‘men can’t love’ to realising ‘men can’t love me’ to ‘I have no self respect’ to ‘yes I do have sone self respect and self love but I am flawed in many ways and I want to correct what I can’.
All very wordy, but this developed from identifying with the women in these stories. I was horrified to realise that I did not have one iota of the strength of character to deal with the adversity that these women did with dignity and determination. I would have sulked, and moped and become suicidal. I am somewhat disgusted with myself. Now working through the list of things that I have accomplished and achieved against odds, so all is not lost. But it’s all a bit shaky and so wanted to post.

Hey gottathink,

I have similar views when it comes to the male characters and how they handle the issues in their own life. I think we need to remember to have compassion and patience with ourselves. We have grown up in different times. Speaking for myself, my life has been to easy. Therefore without a consistent level of difficulty through my life, adult life now is probably more difficult than it would have been growing up in more difficult times. Even the c's said we are experiencing the whole, bad times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create weak people cycle. I think though with role models wthin this sort of content, it can inspire us to do better the next time and the next time. Just my 2 cents

gottathink and placematt, I am very encouraged by what both of you have written. This is exactly the sort of thing that I hoped to see happening. It's the kind of thing that would happen naturally over the course of a person's life if they had good role models in their lives which, sadly, most do not.

Like both of you, I have noted characters displaying a lot more strength and fortitude, love and compassion, than I ever did as a young person. How much better could I have been, how much faster could I have developed, how much more could I have done, had I had good role models and a strong framework of family and friends - even society itself - in which to grow? But when I was in my formative years, it was the 60s and 70s and the whole hippy, free love, drugs, free sex thing was well on the march. Parents were still appalled by that, but most of them had been damaged by the Great Depression and WW II so they didn't have much of a foundation themselves. But then, things like that are true enough in all periods, so what is needed, it seems to me, is something more.
 
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Here's a great description of the principals of 'the hero's journey' as they're conveyed in the Romance genre - that was posted to the YT page of the recent MindMatters show:

Elizabeth Ellen Carter
"Originally, the term romance referred not the contents of a book, but rather its form. These original romances were epic adventures full of daring deeds and heroism.

From the 1300s, romance referred to reciting a narrative from the Old French romancier, which meant ‘to translate into French’. Prior to that, it had come from romanicus, meaning of the Roman style.

These narratives, although written, were often performed. Can you imagine everyone gathered around the flicking firelight while one of the household recited the passages from Beowulf or the story of King Arthur? From there we get to chivalric romances – noble knights imbued with honour, fulfilled their quest and returned to claim the hand of the beautiful maiden. The French particularly specialised in tales of courtly love.

Okay the history lesson from the historical romance writer is over.

What about the romance bit?

1. A hero has a quest
He knows his purpose in life. He doesn’t let life happen to him. He has a clear objective and a clear morality. He knows there is risk. And he takes it any way in the pursuit of the highest good. In fact the word virtue comes from the same Latin root word as virile, so it’s no accident.

2. A hero takes responsibility
Not only for himself and his actions, but also for other things about him. He doesn’t leave it for other people to do. A hero is willing and able to deal with an issue, even if it is not of his own making. A hero has ‘response ability’ which means he has trained and prepared himself to act effectively when the situation calls for it.

3. A hero has courage
A hero knows things aren’t going to go his way all the time. Sometimes the odds are really stacked against him. Sometimes he has to descend to the depths of hell to defeat the foe. He know what is at stake if he fails. He know what the opportunities are if he succeeds. He finds his courage because he draws on his purpose, moral clarity and ‘response ability’ to fight for victory.

4. The hero acknowledges that a weak man cannot be a virtuous man
A hero masters his inner beast, the dark force, the capacity for malevolence that lives within his heart. He doesn’t deny it. Instead he acknowledges it and uses it to develop his courage and strength. Think Luke Skywalker tempted by the Dark Side; Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. A hero is good because he chooses not to be bad. A hero who has integrated his darker nature, and mastered it, becomes a formidable man.

What about the heroine?

A true romantic heroine is no helpless damsel in distress. She is an equal partner on this joint quest but acknowledges there are some paths the hero must walk alone.

She encourages the hero to find his inner courage and helps him fully realise his capacity for valour and honour.

A real romantic heroine never betrays the hero. As the adventure becomes dangerous, she is the one person above all on whom he can rely. And if the heroine herself has dragons of her own to slay, she has enough courage to allow him to step in help, if needed."
 
I finally finished with Harrington and I made a start on the 'Dark Angel' series by Balogh which is actually seven books. Two of the five paperbacks are two books in one.

I find it interesting how Mary has indicated an increase in appreciation for the comments on her FB page from members here as they go into greater detail in describing the effects her books are having on them in the ways we have been discussing here. It gives me the impression that that is indeed the intent of her writing, that her 'purpose' in writing these books is far more than just for entertainment.
 
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