Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

Laurs said:
Sadly, I now finished all Stella Riley books and have just started the Brides of Bellaire Gardens series by Anne Gracie, and saw that the latest book in the series, The Secret Daughter, will be released in December of this year.
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Anne's latest, The Secret Daughter, has been a fun read so far - all the old characters, including the elderly Lady Scattergood. Across the shared communal park, also sees the troublesome Milly, a little older now as she makes the rounds - does she have a secrete beau that she is hiding from mommy?

The first part of Anne's book takes place in France, with Zoe, the sister of Clarissa and Izzy. There is an backstory for Zoe here in France, with the Great Terror that took out her family, so she is searching for answers. Therein, she meets up with a traveling British vagabond, who like her, is a painter. All is going well until Zoe unravels the unseen that shows another side of the man she had met that does not sit well, so she flees.
Will leave it there so as not to reveal more.

Concerning Mary Jo Putney's Fallen Angels, had enjoyed all these books (each has a different theme where she maintains the characters from the other books in the series). Will also read her Uncommon Vows, and chose her book called The Marriage Spell, which apparently has a paranormal angle.
 
Voyageur said:
Mary has just released her RAVENSWOOD, BOOK 4:

Remember When​

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I really did not like the lady in Remember When.
Clarissa Ware grew up with and fell in love with the gentleman next door, Matthew Taylor. Instead of marrying Matthew, she chose the golddigger life and married a stranger, the Earl of Stratton, so she could become the Countess of Stratton. It turned out the Earl was liar and cheater, and brought home a bastard son when her son was just a baby. Her son grew up to be the heir, and the heir Devlin caught his father cheating at the home estate. Devlin denounced the Earl in front of everybody at the party, and Clarissa exiled her own son Devlin as if he were the cheater. Devlin had to leave the love of his life behind, Gwyneth, and joined the army. Slashed across his face in battle, as Devlin lay dying in his brother's arms, all he could say was tell Gwyneth that he loves her. I'm supposed to feel some sympathy for Clarissa?
 
daddycat said:
I really did not like the lady in Remember When.
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Interesting opportunity to question our tendency to be judgmental. I don't think it's as black and white as you suggest.

Spoiler below (turns out I don't know how to use the spoilers and the edit timeout is approaching!.

Clarissa didn't marry the Earl for money, she married him because of pressure from society and family. A common theme in these stories. She was conflicted about the whole situation and paid the price for her decision after decades of unhappy marriage.

Likewise, she was conflicted about the decision to send her son away which was not simply an act of anger. The reputation of the whole family was publicly ruined and it was necessary to defuse the situation. She expressed regret over this to Devlin personally later. He survived his injuries and she didn't send him to war, he chose that path.
 
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Ben said:
Ah, thanks.

It's too late for this time but I'm sure a kindly moderator will stop by and fix it.
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@Ben when you want to create a spoiler, on the very end of the task bar are three dots, click on those and you have the option for a spoiler. Click on that and it will ask you for a title for the spoiler. I just put spoiler there so you can see how that works. I think you don't have to put anything there at all, though. Then enter what you want in the spoiler and you're done.

I hope I explained that okay, if not, just ask for more info.
 
Ben said:
Interesting opportunity to question our tendency to be judgmental. I don't think it's as black and white as you suggest.

Spoiler below (turns out I don't know how to use the spoilers and the edit timeout is approaching!
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Sorry, not good enough.
To her great shame was Clarissa's own words to Matthew about exiling her son Devlin. You exaggerate about the family's reputation being ruined as most people simply never heard about it, like her son in law Marquess of Roath. You deflect that she wasn't seeking money when she was seeking the social status of the title. The whole story was about her breaking away from social expectations after making bad decisions in pursuit of and in defense of social status.
 
Voyageur said:
Will also read her Uncommon Vows, and chose her book called The Marriage Spell, which apparently has a paranormal angle.
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Uncommon Vows (Mary Jo Putney) was a surprise from the normal Romance periods of this thread, going back into the 11/12 hundreds and the societies that existed then.

Like Collingwood looks to the Idea of History, it is always interesting trying to put oneself into the shoes of different periods rather than seeing and interpreting through the lens of our current times.

Without going into a spoiler, the theme deals with the mind, with memories or the lack of memories based on psychological and blunt trauma.

With the The Marriage Spell (again, Mary Jo Putney), don't know what to say, primarily it deals with the subject of healing, people with that natural tendency and and how it is drawn from, probably genetics, along with the ability to utilize natural energies/fields. Think Reiki even. Some might say it a bit phantasy Wizards, Magic/Spells - the beneficial and malevolent wrapped in a romance novel, however, there are perhaps ideas weaved within that look to programing/blocks that are put in minds in a general way. Anyway, a very different story.

Mary Jo Putney had said at the end, that the story was supposed to be more than one in a series, yet a switch in publishing did not carry it on.
 
daddycat said:
Sorry, not good enough.
To her great shame was Clarissa's own words to Matthew about exiling her son Devlin. You exaggerate about the family's reputation being ruined as most people simply never heard about it, like her son in law Marquess of Roath. You deflect that she wasn't seeking money when she was seeking the social status of the title. The whole story was about her breaking away from social expectations after making bad decisions in pursuit of and in defense of social status.
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Well, if you don't like the character or feel she is deserving of any sympathy then fair enough. I won't argue her case any further, which I just don't see as so clearly a result of selfish intentions. I thought it was interesting that I didn't feel the same way. But even the Mary Balogh characters that have behaved in worse ways I have softened my views on after hearing more about them, or seeing how they responded to their mistakes. I'm sure that's her intention. But something in each of us probably responds differently based on our personal or ancestral memories, or even past life. It's noticeable how some sentences she writes just touch on something in you.
 
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