Koren
I really enjoyed Lila, although some of her resistance felt a little forced, but it felt a little like it fell flat in places, and Ash was a little pushier than I like. And Jai didn't feel like a well enough developed villain for me.
A good, solid ending to the series. Over all it lacked the oomph of some of her others, but I still really enjoyed it.
On the one hand, I think this book is helpful, and addresses some of my needs as an HSP. I'm tempted to recommend it to other HSPs (read: empaths and sensitives) that I know.
On the other hand, I get the impression that I wouldn't like this man very much. I don't think that I'd want to spend much time sitting and talking to him, and I'm having trouble reading parts of this book without wanting to just give up and chuck it across the room.
(I'm only on page 31)
I've been trying to figure out why it's bothering me so much, and if it's an unfair resistance to something that I'm going to have to eventually accept that I need to change, or if it's a valid complaint, and I'm starting to lean towards the later. A current example I'm facing is the following segments regarding evening routines and one's choice of entertainment and activities:
“Your evening activities should consist of calming endeavors such as reading uplifting books, writing, taking a bath or engaging in light discussions.” (Zeff, 30)
“Paradoxically, when HSPs are in an out of balance state, they sometimes desire to be involved in activities that push them further off-center. Sometimes, when you internalize the Type A lifestyle, you may actually enjoy watching overstimulating television shows or getting into intense discussions late at night, regardless of what they do to your sleep schedule. However, as you begin meditating and living a more contemplative life, you will instinctively begin to desire more peaceful activities.” (Zeff, 31)
The tone of the book's advice often takes an “all or nothing” approach to the problem of being an HSP. What's good for the proverbial goose (in this case, the author himself) is “obviously” good for the gander, and vice versa (bad for one = bad for the other). The specifications such as reading material needing to be “uplifting” or that television shows are by their very nature (for the most part, implied) “overstimulating” rankles me. I feel like he's petting my fur in the wrong direction. I've done experiments with a volt meter and various stimuli to see how I react to it - “agressive” music actually grounds and centers me. By the same token, I'm not just imagining that watching shows I like (most of which I'm sure the author would call ‘overstimulating') relaxes me and allows my brain to let go of the stresses and tensors of the day. Certainly there are some shows that stimulate me in ways that aren't conducive to sleep (forget falling asleep immediately after an intense episode of BSG, for instance) but that is directly related to how emotionally involved I am with the characters, not with the content on it's surface. Crime shows and mysteries (both of which are singled out by the author numerous times) facilitate my relaxation, because I can follow the patterns and the logic and not get too wrapped up in what's going on.
Too much emphasis is put on telling the reader what “will” cause over-stimulation and what “will” stop it, and not enough emphasis is placed on teaching the reader how to identify the warning signs of over-stimulation and how to cope with and correct it. In other words, he tells us that something like loud, agressive music will be too stimulating for an HSP and that it is better to avoid that stimulus most of the time, rather than saying “if you are at a concert, and you start to react in certain ways, you may wish to counter that by doing x, y, or z.” The overall message that I've come away with so far is that one should insulate one's self from stimulus as much as possible. While this may be a tactic that could work for some people, many of us aren't just tricking ourselves into “thinking” that we like stimulating things - we genuinely do like them. They genuinely bring us pleasure and happiness. A “contemplative” and “quiet” life isn't going to be right for everyone that happens to also be an HSP. It isn't going to make all of us happy. Some of us, it's going to bore to tears.
I really enjoy this series. It's difficult to find trio fiction (especially where there is m/m as well as m/f interaction) where there is an actual story, and developed characters, and this series has both. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer, and more involved in the broader story of their lives, instead of a smaller snippet. More character development, more plot lines and so forth.
Of the entire series, I think that Very is my favorite character, hands down. She's fabulously frank and gutsy. I am eagerly awaiting the full story between Very, Wolf, and Michael.
I loved the concept. I loved that it was epistolary format.
I was disappointed by the execution. There were a lot of events that were either just dropped on us without any real foreshadowing that they were coming, or that were basically outlined and then handed to us. There were other areas of the story that felt like they were left almost completely unexplored, despite how important they were (or should have been) to Tilly. Not just because she's the main character, but because we're getting this story directly through her words and writings, I feel like those should have featured more prominently.
I also wish that more time and exploration had been spent in the written shared world the girls were creating, especially since I was expecting it to be a tool to explore the emotional chaos they were each going through. Instead, it felt like all we got was a brief info dump of each of them periodically instead.
Such a fantastic idea, and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my hopes. :(
Borrowed from Bekah (Kadollan)
I liked Sunshine (the character). I liked the normalcy about her life in the coffeehouse - frankly, I think that I would've liked the story quite a bit more if there had been more about her daily life and less about the “big bad”. I want to go back and reread this book along with “Beauty” and “Rose Daughter” and see how they work as a trilogy of sorts (not that I think McKinley intended it that way, but they are three separate versions of the Beauty and the Beast myth that she's written, so it would be an interesting topic and comparison.)
I have several unanswered questions: I wish we had been told more about who Mel actually is/was, I wish there had been a bit more resolution about what would happen from the end on to Sunshine, Constantine, and that we had been given a better idea about how she would ultimately decide to juggle the different aspects of her life and her abilities.
I believe that one of the most important things that a teacher of the Craft can impart on their students is an understanding of the difference between our mythology and our history. While both are vitally important to understanding where we came from and who we're trying to become, it is a distinction that needs to be made. Many books (too many) claim the created mythology of the “history of modern Wicca” as real history. Bonewits, however, makes the distinction clearly and relatively concisely, in a book that is geared towards non-academics without being “dumbed down”. This is absolutely a book that I would recommend (even require) any of my students to read and seriously think about as a first step into the Craft and paganism. It's a great introduction to the subject, as well as a springboard for more involved texts like Hutton's “Triumph of the Moon”.
I don't think that I was expecting this book to be quite as intense as it turned out to be. Intense in a good way, mind you, but unexpected. Lena was my favorite of the girls, though in some ways Carmen's story caught my attention more. I didn't particularly like Tibby's story, but I thought she did a fantastic job on Bee. (I do, however, wish she'd been a little bit less vague about what happened between Bee and Eric. Not graphic details or anything, but I was never quite clear if they just made out or actually had sex. On the other hand, if she's not setting Bee up to be manic depressive, I'll be incredibly shocked. Seriously.) Overall it was an awesome book, and now I need to get my hands on the other three. :)
As usual, absolutely loved it.
I never get tired of visiting this world, this family, these characters, and this was a solid addition to the series.
It probably won't go on my [a:Nora Roberts 625 Nora Roberts http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1198342300p2/625.jpg] favorites shelf, but it was pretty good. The opening chapter or so actually put me off this book when it initially came out - something about Reece was very off-putting to me. Once I got into the story, though, I liked her quite a bit better. I would have liked Joanie more than I did if it hadn't been emphasized so heavily that she was a smoker (I personally have a very low squick threshold when it comes to smoking, so the frequent references and descriptions of it put me completely off.) I wish I could say that I liked Brody (I certainly didn't dislike him) but there seemed to be very little character development for him, and virtually none to their relationship other than getting them hooked up as soon as possible and then on with the main plot-line. ([b:Blue Smoke 114184 Blue Smoke Nora Roberts http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217909729s/114184.jpg 1553106] suffered from this same issue in my opinion.) The main plot-line was handled very well, and I wasn't sure who the villain was until right at the reveal, and had quite a few concerns about who it would be. But I really, really would have liked more of an epilogue. The end was far too abrupt and had me literally looking for the other pages of the book.
I liked the book quite a bit... right up until the last two or three chapters. In part, I wasn't entirely happy with the ending (I hated the way it worked out)... but I think that the bigger issue that I had was the abruptness of the ending, and the fact that we didn't see anything beyond that point. I was honestly reminded in the last few paragraphs of Harlan Ellison's “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”... for a book that had up until that point balanced it's lessons of consequences for one's actions with love and hope, it seemed to abandon all of those things at the most important moment.
It was a solid read. I like other trilogies by her better, but this one is really enjoyable.
I've yet to meet a book of Danielle's that I didn't like (she's certainly on my insta-buy list) - but White Hot Truth is even better than I expected it to be. It's refreshing to hear someone that can both address the real flaws and pitfalls of the spiritual self-help journey, and validate that it's a useful path to wander down. She doesn't sugar coat any of the hard truths or dangers inherent in working on your spiritual self, but at the same time, she doesn't degrade or dismiss that the work is valuable.
This is one of those books that you can pick up anywhere and find the words you need to read at a given time, that asks questions to lead you deeper into being your own guiding light, and shows you that you can be a fully-faceted, fully realized person while you're on the journey, in your now, not just in some kind of dream-like amorphous someday that you may or may not ever “get to”.
This is one of those books I'll be recommending to friends and family for a long time to come.
The basic premise was great, but the characters seemed sort of flat, and the relationship too quick and easy, without enough emotional depth for my tastes, or enough of a drawn out seduction (either of the characters or of the reader.)