Well, this thread is already well filled with a lot of great posts !
I've finished the first volume of the survivors of Mary Balogh "A proposal", I wouldn't have imagined one second I would read this kind of books.
However, I have to say that I had a lot of fun reading it, my emotions were fluctuating along with the characters and I could relate emotionally with them quite often.
I liked the way Mary Balogh describe the heroes and the way she puts many internal dialogs.
Humans can be very complicated when it comes to love, sometimes I wanted to yell at them "damn, are you going to tell him/her!".
It is always easier when you are outside the story to give advices ! And, yet I know that with their wounds I would probably act the same way, being clumsy.
This is one way I find romance novels interesting as we, generally speaking, tend to live our feelings and our doubts alone with our ego and finally, it is always when you start to share what you genuinely feel that something is possible.
And so reading their story helps to remember that we are all very similar in our feelings.
That's funny how both heroes of this novel, Hugo and Gwendoline, look the exact opposite of whom they really are.
Gwendoline looks like a fragile, blond and thin woman, limping like she was carrying her emotional wounds on her ankle. She's actually quite independent, strong and ignoring her weaknesses in order to keep going.
Hugo, when he seems to be huge, very strong and hard like an insensitive rock, is finally a sensitive character.
Both are suffering from loneliness that they live like a punishment they inflict to themselves for their past faults. Or at least this is the way I see it.
They fear of sharing their feelings and wounds, yet their wounds are what get them closer to each other.
It brings me back to the gratefulness I have to be well surrounded and loved by a man whom I feel I can be true with, especially in those crazy times.
It reminds me that in spite of the horrors this world can carry, there is love, care and support between bot of us which offer a great feeling of safety.
Also, more than the class background difference which seem to bother Hugo more than Gwendoline, I think that it is the fear of not being loved by the one he loves that blocks him. Or maybe I am transferring what I have felt for a long time even with my actual partner at the beginning.
This fear that makes you wear a shield with the absurd idea that it will protect yourself from suffering.
Communication is the key in love and friendship, I already realized that some times ago but not always used it so it is a good reminder.
Anyway, this book helped me a lot when I was feeling sucked by the news cause it enabled me not to nourish the stress that the situation we are living in causes.
So I am going to start the second volume of the survivors series even if I have difficulty to leave the characters of the previous one.
I often tend to become attached to them, and I liked Hugo and Gwendoline.
I have just finished the wicked deeds of Daniel Mckenzie. And whilst I really enjoy reading these books, i'm becoming frustrated, angry and annoyed at them. I am viewing them more as fairy tales as I don't believe these same narratives would unfold if each of these men where not wealthy. i'm apprehensive to express my thinking in regards to this but maybe someone else is struggling with a similar cultural program. Because i do believe I have picked up my beliefs from our society/culture.
This is true that, even in "A proposal" of Mary Balogh, the topic of wealth is brought into the description of the characters, but in the end this is not what remains the most.
Of course, it is easier to purchase a castle or to hire a servant when you are wealthy but there is in this story a sense of work that is quite important.
That is a difference between Hugo and Gwendoline's worlds.
In Hugo's world, people have always been hard workers, and they got wealthy, but is not all about that. The feminine characters in "A proposal" admire this state of mind and men feel useful and legitimate to use the money they earned.
In our times, the wealthy idle could be compared to some kind of jet-set but it is a big minority that a lot of young people want to reach though. An easy life without having to think and work, but this book (I haven't read The wicked Deeds) is about some universal values of which belong the work.
Also, it is a lot about the sense of not belonging to an upper class because of a feeling of inferiority. Which leads us to think about the barriers we put on our way by ourselves.
This is something that I felt too before.
As some men are looking for a young, fresh and sexy woman, some women would search for a rich guy with a big car and have a lot of fun going to a lot of parties.
But is it what we really want?
). And what's sad is that's there's a grain of truth to that. Many people will treat you differently if you are rich and /or handsome. Many women will be interested in you, and these same women wouldn't look at you twice if you were earning minimum wage. Notice that at no point your "internal wealth" comes into question. Your "Being" has no worth here.
