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Romance Books

Tag: Rant

Review: Finding the Way Back to Love by Katie O’Boyle

Author: Katie O’Boyle

Book: Finding the Way Back to Love

tl;dr recommendation: one star reviews, one star reviews EVERYWHERE. or just here. whichever.

Book Summary:

Gwen Forrester, Ph.D., 32, gifted psychotherapist and beautiful widow, is stuck in a rut, dating hotties on the fast track, when what she really wants is a life partner who’ll help her raise a family and make a difference in her home town of Tompkins Falls. New in town, Officer Peter Shaughnessy, 30, has recovered from the damage he suffered in a drug bust in his hometown of Syracuse, but he’s still smarting from his ex-wife’s betrayal and, before that, the years of abuse from his alcoholic father.

When Gwen’s very-pregnant niece, Haley, trips the security system at Gwen’s lakeside home one moonlit summer night, it’s love at first sight for responding Officer Peter and stunned Aunt Gwen. By joining forces to help Haley, Peter and Gwen discover they’re a good team. Long, exhilarating canoe trips convince them they’re on the same page with their life goals. Then a destructive squall lands them on the rocks, and a night of stormy passion reveals painful truths that drive them apart. Are they willing to go to any length to find their way back to love?

Longer Review:

Go read the summary if you haven’t already. Sounds fine, right? I thought so too. I considered dnf’ing this book, but then I wouldn’t be able to rate it (due to my own policy of not rating books I don’t finish) and I felt that anything I said would be looked at in the “hey, she didn’t even fucking read the book” kind of way. So I did. I read the whole thing. I did it so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

I am not being overly harsh here. I wasn’t totally in love with the writing style as I felt there were too many adjectives and descriptors used, but overall, I could have gotten used to that. No, that’s not my issue. My issue is with the fact that this book claims to be a contemporary romance, but it really isn’t.

Quick summary: Hailey doesn’t “trip the security alarm” at Gwen’s house – she breaks in. Actually breaks a door. Lie #1 in blurb. However, Peter’s a cop and gets called to the house to investigate. He meets Gwen then and it’s instalove. Sort of.

Let’s walk through my journey:

Me at 38%:  is this a Christian romance?! I’m having a panic attack over here.

At this point I’m in between a panic attack and laughing my face off because I recently read a Christian Romance while drinking one night for funsies and I was having flashbacks. Let me clarify here: I have zero problem if you’re religious. I just don’t don’t want to surprise read about them. I grew up super religious. My father went to seminary – I am the preacher’s daughter (surprising, right? or maybe not…). Anyway, I don’t care if you’re religious but I wanted to read a romance novel. With kissing, and sexing, and not God-ing. I didn’t sign up to read about their guilt over what God is going to think or every four words being about letting God take control. JESUS FUCK (haha). If I wanted to talk about religion and not read about sex, I would call my mother.

The book summary says absolutely nothing about how the main characters are pretty God-centric (Lie #2). I found a mention of this book being deemed an inspirational romance on Amazon, but even that doesn’t mention the heavy emphasis on religion. Just be honest. If your book caters to religious people who like a little sex, then CATER TO THOSE PEOPLE. I am not those people.

Me at 50%: I think the one night of passion this book promises is with the Lord Jesus our Savior. Fuck me to hell.

I was waiting for the sex. Waiting, and hoping and praying *cough*cough*, but it was like it was never going to happen. I know that the blurb promised “one night of passion” but I was pretty convinced that was lie #3 after the first half of this book. FINALLY. FINALLY it happens around 54%. There are I believe three sex scenes in this book (so technically more than one night), which aren’t bad. However, I was then conflicted – I mean, for such religious people, they’re totally fine with premarital sex. I started to think I actually liked them a little more. But really, no. I didn’t. Because of my next point….

Me at 91%: I need a fucking drink. which is somewhat hilariously inappropriate as this entire book is about alcoholics.

Did I mention that the entire book is about alcoholics? Sorry, in my ranting haze I must have forgotten. But now you know: the entire town is comprised of recovering alcoholics. I am not kidding. Just about every single person in this book is a recovering alcoholic – they have tons of AA meetings, which I imagine are not very anonymous being as how it’s a small town. They should just call it a weekly town meeting. (Note, the blurb says nothing about the characters being alcoholics).

They should really put that on a pamphlet for people like Peter who have issues with drunks. This portion of the story killed me. Peter’s issues with drunks was ridiculously up-sold. Like, how deeply seated are your issues that you’re going to trip people who you know are recovering alcoholics? DICK MOVE, BRO. It’s pretty much his only issue, and I thought it was pretty dumb.

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I also had other issues with the story. For example, Gwen would basically wish for something to happen and it would – except for when it came to her relationship with Peter. There were also so many mundane things that happened that did absolutely nothing to push the story further along. I didn’t fully understand the relationship between Hailey and Rick – they both lacked character development – and I felt that the author totally forgot about how giving up a baby for adoption is one of the more traumatic life events someone can go through. Instead, Hailey was just ‘la la la, let’s go canoeing. Btw, I’m an alcoholic.’ [SHOCKING]. The ending was incredibly anticlimactic for me, and I was just rejoicing that it was over.

I realize this is really long and pretty ranty and I’m going to stop now; however, I don’t give out one-star reviews lightly. I respect that it takes a long time to write a book, so if I’m going to rate a book poorly, there deserves to be some commentary along with it. So, I deem this book a christian alcoholic romance. I didn’t like it. Sorry.

[I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review]

Sigh. This Again? STFU about Fifty Shades.

Ahh, once again, my internal rage has been lit — and push-ups, flutter kicks, squats, lunges and two orgasms simply haven’t put it out. There is little in this world that actually gnaws at my core like the yawping of feminists who speak loudly from their ladder that climbs towards The Glass Ceiling (a place at which they intend to arrive and so therefore, eventually arrive) and who declare that because I am a woman I am simply wrong if I enjoy/like/or otherwise appreciate anything that appears to butt up against their perception as to how a Modern Woman should act. 

Forgive the previous somewhat ridiculous prose, but I’ve been reading F. Scott Fitzgerald this morning. and apparently THIS BOOK HAS INFILTRATED MY BRAIN AND I CAN NO LONGER THINK FOR MYSELF. 

What has brought this on? Technically it started about a month ago while I was trolling on facebook and a sorority sister (OMG I WAS IN A SORORITY) wrote that she was reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I commented my approval and kind words of encouragement, as I think we all now know my love for Christian Grey. The conversation quickly turned to comments from others who declared Fifty Shades of Grey and its progeny to be the Demise of Feminism. Did I mention I went to a very political university where we’d often discuss International Policy over jungle juice? Somehow I managed to survive for four years with my wits about me. 

But anyway, SO, there I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday and I see this Tweet from Salon:

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OHMYFUCKINGGOD. NOT THIS AGAIN. AND SO HELP ME I WILL WRITE IN FUCKING SHOUTY CAPITALS. My inner goddess sat up, took notice and jumped up on her soapbox. My palm even started to twitch. I considered making a lemon martini just to have the satisfaction of throwing it on someone. Didn’t get those references? No? THEN READ THE FUCKING BOOKS. All of them.

I read the article and attempted to suppress my rage, but it kept bubbling to the surface. Seriously, this article is insinuating that banning books might be ok because women are too feeble minded to know what is appropriate and what is not in a relationship? SERIOUSLY?! Thinking so highly of womenkind – that’s so very feminist-like. 

I didn’t read the Fifty Trilogy until this year, but let me tell you…when I was ages 18-24 I was binge drinking, eating terribly, making questionable choices regarding who I went home with, and putting up with awful treatment from some men. Why? Because frankly, that’s what some women do at those ages. It’s self-discovery, it’s COLLEGE. Is it right? Maybe not, but go poll 650 women aged 18-24 who haven’t read the books and I bet you the numbers would result in about the same statistics quoted in the study. I frankly can’t believe that we’re even having this conversation. Apparently women are so weak that a book is going to so influence their thoughts and ideas that they must immediately emulate them, forsaking all reason, logic or self. Just because it may affect some small group of women in that way doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t enjoy the story. Like I’m supposed to feel bad for liking and enjoying these books. Not happening. 

Willing submission by a woman to a man, whether in the bedroom or out, does not mean that the woman has lost all power. In fact, it often means that she has all of the power. Power Exchange, as described in these books, in a trusted, safe, consensual relationship is a choice (and aren’t all feminists about embracing choices?!). Obviously when a power exchange is not consensual it’s called rape. and that’s not ok. Note: that doesn’t happen in the books. EVER. Also, I’m not preaching for men to rule the world and for women to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Fuck all that noise. That’s not even remotely what I’m saying – and if you think it is, you clearly are reading with such a bias that all hope is lost anyway. 

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And let’s talk about Fifty Shades. Christian is admittedly fucked up. He says this over and over. He’s in his first real relationship – he has no idea what he’s doing and all of his previous experiences with women are those in which he is The Master Dominant. So, when he’s challenged by Ana – which she does quite frequently – he is confused and often reacts in his habitual ways. And some of those reactions are pretty crazy. BUT IF YOU READ MORE THAN THE FIRST FUCKING BOOK you’d see that his character starts to shift – he starts accepting and giving love and begins to transition into a more “normal” human being. But let’s not forget – Ana willingly submits to Christian. She makes a choice. Whether you agree with her choice or not, is your prerogative, but she MAKES A CHOICE. And they each affect and are affected by the other – they fall in love and make silly choices, which sometimes end poorly. I think the story is quite good. And apparently so did like 70 million other people. 

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The article suggests that parents and educators should speak with young people re: these topics and themes. I am wholeheartedly in favor of this type of communication and that relationship violence is bad. But I would hope that we analyze and discuss the types of issues in the Fifty Shades books the same way we analyze why Rosalind chose to dump Amory to marry for money. And, since I’m clearly on a Fitzgerald kick, I hope that we also talk about drunk driving, murder and adultery when we read about Jay Gatsby’s affair with Daisy.

Over all, let’s be clear minded, well read, smart women and just LET ME ENJOY MY MOTHERFUCKING NOVELS. 

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