Just finished book 5 of the Westcott Series SOMEONE TO TRUST. After being involved with this family for five books, I feel like I'm part of the family. And wow, did my emotions come to the fore! I teared up when I read that Joel and Camille have adopted another child, four year old Robbie, from the orphanage (I'm tearing up just typing this!) and Winifred has taken him under her wing determined to show him that he is loved, notwithstanding his attempts to prove her otherwise.
The protagonists could both be said to typify the archetypal hero and heroine, culminating with their marriage and consummation at the end of the narrative, which, according to my reading history of MB, is not her typical style. but, imo, it certainly fits this narrative, This one was an all-nighter. I couldn't put it down, there were so many cliff-hangers that weren't resolved until the end.
All in all, a great read from Mary B.
I finished
Someone to Trust last night as well. It definitely had my emotions running over. Lady Hodges' machinations and manipulations got me so riled up I wanted to throw my kindle! Not that I did, of course, but it took some time to bring my emotions back under control. Something about what she did
, setting Lord Hodges up to bend him to her will so he would be powerless to fight back or do anything to stop it, really struck a nerve and caused a strong reaction of resentful anger in me. I think at least some of this resentful anger came from still not having fully forgiven my parents for all of the sh*t that came from growing up in a strict fundie family where for a long time I was restricted in what I could listen to, watch, who I could spend time with, when, etc. But perhaps more important than those things is the anger and resentment towards my mother for wearing her mask that she wears to pretend like everything is fine and towards my father for being absent physically all of my childhood while he worked nights and emotionally even when he was home. Writing it like this, my family is similar to Lord Hodges' though not to that extreme. Perhaps I need to read it again in order to see how it is that I can forgive them on the one hand and stop feeling guilty for things that weren't my fault on the other.
One interesting thing that happened after finishing the book and going to sleep was that I dreamt that I had a very personal conversation with Pamela Anderson. If someone was to look into my dream they would've recognized her as herself though for some reason she had red contacts in. She didn't look malevolent or evil. It was more like a fashion choice that I found odd. Similar to how some of the Regency era, and even modern for that matter, fashions I find rather odd, even if they were or are the fashion of the time. Anyways she was telling me about her life experiences, how she wanted someone to treat her, and what she would've liked a man to do for her. I was essentially getting to know Pamela, the human being. For those who've read
Someone to Trust it was the same way that Lord Hodges was getting to know Elizabeth. Haven't worked out the symbolism of it, but it was touching in an emotional way that my dreams have never been before.
The last interesting thing for today occurred during EE. It was a vision of two men (they looked like men but also had the air of something more) dressed in matching uniforms (something between a military dress uniform and a business suit that was somehow more of a government thing, the closest thing I can think of to describe it is a Star Trek uniform) of some kind. They had me locked in my seat (though it was more like I was strapped to it, the point was I was locked down and couldn't move) while one of them was pulling levers at this console and the other was planning/attempting to force me to take something (wasn't sure if it was to be ingested or injected) as part of some big plan. They seemed smug, confident, and satisfied of the success of their actions even though nothing they were attempting to do actually did anything to me though they were intended to. It was as if they couldn't see that they weren't doing anything. Think of a parent feeding their child in a high chair. Smiling and telling the child how good they're being for eating the food, but then forgetting to actually feed the child. So while I was in the seat and observed them being unable to see their own failures I felt totally calm and relaxed, because again nothing they did was actually doing anything. My takeaway from it was a message of comfort that no matter what they (the beings in the vision, and perhaps the real PTB these beings seemed to represent) intend to do, their wishful thinking will prevent them from being able to do it. Fwiw.
