Hawaiian Dreams - Romancing America
Carole Gift Page
Series/Novella/Standalone: Standalone
PRG Rating: 8.5 - A Really Clean Read
Publisher: Barbour
Date: October 2010
Book Genre: Christian Romance
Audience: Ages 13+ (Teens and Adults)
Hawaiian Dreams is part of the Romancing America line. It's one book that containing three stories set on the beautiful islands of Hawaii.
The first story, By the Beckoning Sea is based on the story of Ashley Bancroft, an editor who's jilted at the altar by her fiance. Amidst her depression Ashley's offered a a new job with bestselling author Anthony Adler.In Hawaii Ashley begins to heal as she helps Adler with his next book. Soon feelings get in the way and both find themselves attracted to the other. However, Anthony seems to be a mysterious individual with a past.He's also deeply grieving his wife's death and feels guilty about it. Ashley on the other hand is fighting her mixed feelings between Anthony and her ex-fiance. To top it all, it seems Anthony is keeping secret. Will this secret destroy the relationship between Ashley and Anthony? Will Ashley get over her ex-fiance?
The second story is To Love A Gentle Stranger. Marnie and Jeff Jordan have been happily married for few months, but a terrible car accident throws everything out of balance. Marnie loses her memory and becomes a different person altogether. Even worse she's forgotten her husband, Jeff. It's up to Jeff to begin courting Marnie again and reminding them of the life they once had. However this proves to be difficult as many challenges between the couple arise. Will Jeff and Marnie ever get back to living happily married again?
The third story - Sweet Joy of My Life - is about artist Kayli Akimo who's moving back to Hawaii with her Aunt. Back in Hawaii Kayli struggles with her fear of fire, she also meets two guys - an architect and a firefighter. Which of these two is really the right one for her? Who will be the one who stands by her or the one who tries to harm her?
We think Carole Gift Page did a good job of writing and bringing her charachters to life. The first two stories are definately the best in the book and display problems many face in the world today.All the women rely on their faith and relationship with God to work their confusing lives out to bring about a happy ending. The description of the surroundings is like taking a tour of Hawaii. The first story was good, but the relationship could have been developed better.
The second story was well researched.Having had an aunt go through a coma, and suffering abit from amnesia it was nice to see this particular topic written about in a book. It wasn't as predictable as we thought, it had an interesting twist to it at the end.
The third story, however, seemed like a bad ending to a good series. The characters were underdeveloped, the relationship rushed, and the villain was overall unnecessary. Over all it was a bearable book with not much of a story, certainly didn't beat the first two. Not much sight seeing in this one.
Overall, We did enjoy the book, and yes we would read it again.
Nala's thoughts: This book is great overall and is good read if you want to read about Hawaii. I was bit disappointed with the third story though - it didn't seem as captivating as the first two.
Jo's thoughts: I enjoyed the first and second books, it's like taking a mind tour of Hawaii. In the second book I found Jeff to be an easy character to love, Marnie was a little irritating and tested my patience.
Content Review:
Score: 8.5
Themes/Topics Explored:
Sexual Content -(Score 1.5):
*Special Note: This is a Christian Fiction. So there are mentions of Jesus Christ, Prayer, Relying on God, Attending Church and reading the Bible.
Carole Gift Page
PRG Rating: 8.5 - A Really Clean Read
Publisher: Barbour
Date: October 2010
Book Genre: Christian Romance
Audience: Ages 13+ (Teens and Adults)
Hawaiian Dreams is part of the Romancing America line. It's one book that containing three stories set on the beautiful islands of Hawaii.
The first story, By the Beckoning Sea is based on the story of Ashley Bancroft, an editor who's jilted at the altar by her fiance. Amidst her depression Ashley's offered a a new job with bestselling author Anthony Adler.In Hawaii Ashley begins to heal as she helps Adler with his next book. Soon feelings get in the way and both find themselves attracted to the other. However, Anthony seems to be a mysterious individual with a past.He's also deeply grieving his wife's death and feels guilty about it. Ashley on the other hand is fighting her mixed feelings between Anthony and her ex-fiance. To top it all, it seems Anthony is keeping secret. Will this secret destroy the relationship between Ashley and Anthony? Will Ashley get over her ex-fiance?
The second story is To Love A Gentle Stranger. Marnie and Jeff Jordan have been happily married for few months, but a terrible car accident throws everything out of balance. Marnie loses her memory and becomes a different person altogether. Even worse she's forgotten her husband, Jeff. It's up to Jeff to begin courting Marnie again and reminding them of the life they once had. However this proves to be difficult as many challenges between the couple arise. Will Jeff and Marnie ever get back to living happily married again?
The third story - Sweet Joy of My Life - is about artist Kayli Akimo who's moving back to Hawaii with her Aunt. Back in Hawaii Kayli struggles with her fear of fire, she also meets two guys - an architect and a firefighter. Which of these two is really the right one for her? Who will be the one who stands by her or the one who tries to harm her?
We think Carole Gift Page did a good job of writing and bringing her charachters to life. The first two stories are definately the best in the book and display problems many face in the world today.All the women rely on their faith and relationship with God to work their confusing lives out to bring about a happy ending. The description of the surroundings is like taking a tour of Hawaii. The first story was good, but the relationship could have been developed better.
The second story was well researched.Having had an aunt go through a coma, and suffering abit from amnesia it was nice to see this particular topic written about in a book. It wasn't as predictable as we thought, it had an interesting twist to it at the end.
The third story, however, seemed like a bad ending to a good series. The characters were underdeveloped, the relationship rushed, and the villain was overall unnecessary. Over all it was a bearable book with not much of a story, certainly didn't beat the first two. Not much sight seeing in this one.
Overall, We did enjoy the book, and yes we would read it again.
Nala's thoughts: This book is great overall and is good read if you want to read about Hawaii. I was bit disappointed with the third story though - it didn't seem as captivating as the first two.
Jo's thoughts: I enjoyed the first and second books, it's like taking a mind tour of Hawaii. In the second book I found Jeff to be an easy character to love, Marnie was a little irritating and tested my patience.
Content Review:
Score: 8.5
Themes/Topics Explored:
- One being jilted at the altar and how one deals with it
- Working with a renowned author
- How fame affects people
- Alcohol Abuse and how it affects one
- Suffering from guilt and how to free oneself from it
- Learning to forgive oneself in order to move on
- Dealing with two love interests at one time
- The effects of car/motor accidents
- Amnesia and how one responds to those around them
- Learning to love again
- Suffering from memory loss and how to be functional person again
- Dealing with childhood fears and overcoming them.
- Arson and why some people to do it.
- A man roughly handles a woman in anger.
- A man and woman are involved in a terrible accident. There's a description about bloody injuries etc.
- A woman pushes a man away
- A man sets fires deliberately
- A young man traps a young woman in a house in which he has set fire to. He roughly handles the woman.
Sexual Content -(Score 1.5):
- A couple of kisses in all the stories.
- In the first story a woman and man swim in the pool together .
- In the second story a wife claims "she's not ready to perform her wifely duties yet".
- In third story, there is a bit of an inappropriate scene in which a man forces a woman to kiss him- not really graphic, but does make one feel uncomfortable.
- A man suffers from Alcohol addiction - there mentions of him holding a bottle and acting weird.He also claims to have been drunk sometime in the past.
- A woman is often disrespectful to her spouse and treats him badly
- A young man is often disrespectful to his father
- A young man has crazy obsession with setting fires on purpose because he wanted to control the fire's power.
*Special Note: This is a Christian Fiction. So there are mentions of Jesus Christ, Prayer, Relying on God, Attending Church and reading the Bible.
0 comments:
Post a Comment