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Beyond the Rapture
Beyond the Rapture ( Sensuous Love Stories)
225 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 10, 2007
"Beyond the Rapture" is an interracial romance between a supermodel and a doctor who must overcome internal and external obstacles in order to be together. While this could have been a wonderful story, due to poor editing and predictable storyline, the story falls flat.
Philip Cardoneaux and Lily Jordan meet after Lily is brought in after collapsing from exhaustion during a photo shoot. Immediately, Philip is hypnotized by Lily's beauty as well as charmed by her stubbornness. Lily is also attracted to Philip but she has made a decision not to date white men and she is annoyed that Philip is the only person who can release her from the hospital.
Philip is so taken by Lily,shortly into her stay at the hospital, he asks he to come stay at his home (at a guest house) until she feels better.
Against her better judgement, she decides to accept his offer and the rest of the book is about Philip showing Lily that he loves her and can give her anything she wants or desires. Standing in the way of their future together is Philip's meddling mother Suzette and Lily's own previous problems with interracial relationships.
I didn't really like Lily as a character. She was whiny and selfish. She focused too much on the wrongs that were done to her in the past and allowed her bad childhood to cloud her judgement in reference to her romantic relationships as well as the idea of parenthood. In addition, Lily is shown as a woman who is afraid that because of her hostile upbringing and being biracial she will become the type of mother her mother was to her;cold and distant.
Philip Cardoneaux is a likable character although at times, he seems weak and too understanding.Philip spends the entire book showing Lily that he is the right man for her which I found this hard to believe considering that he is portrayed to be a doctor with a heart of gold who although he has a lot of money,he chooses to work at the community hospital because he wants to,not because he needs to.
I also found it ridiculous that after a few weeks of knowing Lily, Philip invited her stay at his house. I also feel that he wasn't in love with Lily, at least not at first. As I was reading the story, I got the impression that he was more in lust with her body (after all, she is a supermodel) and then began to love her after she came to stay with him at his house and he got to know her better.
Another side note I had with the book was how the author kept saying how beautiful Lily is.I'm pretty sure the readers would assume she's pretty. I mean, who's ever heard of an ugly supermodel?
What saddens me that most about "Beyond the Rapture" is that the story had so much potential,especially when it comes to the issue of race. Lily is the daughter of a black mother and a white father and has been scarred by seeing them constantly fight while she was growing up. While she believes that Philip is white, he is actually 1/4 black but since he looks and was raised as white, he has yet to fully come to terms with that part of his racial identity.
"Beyond the Rapture" could have been a story full of depth, but instead readers are given a book filled with bad punctuation and predictable storyline.
Philip Cardoneaux and Lily Jordan meet after Lily is brought in after collapsing from exhaustion during a photo shoot. Immediately, Philip is hypnotized by Lily's beauty as well as charmed by her stubbornness. Lily is also attracted to Philip but she has made a decision not to date white men and she is annoyed that Philip is the only person who can release her from the hospital.
Philip is so taken by Lily,shortly into her stay at the hospital, he asks he to come stay at his home (at a guest house) until she feels better.
Against her better judgement, she decides to accept his offer and the rest of the book is about Philip showing Lily that he loves her and can give her anything she wants or desires. Standing in the way of their future together is Philip's meddling mother Suzette and Lily's own previous problems with interracial relationships.
I didn't really like Lily as a character. She was whiny and selfish. She focused too much on the wrongs that were done to her in the past and allowed her bad childhood to cloud her judgement in reference to her romantic relationships as well as the idea of parenthood. In addition, Lily is shown as a woman who is afraid that because of her hostile upbringing and being biracial she will become the type of mother her mother was to her;cold and distant.
Philip Cardoneaux is a likable character although at times, he seems weak and too understanding.Philip spends the entire book showing Lily that he is the right man for her which I found this hard to believe considering that he is portrayed to be a doctor with a heart of gold who although he has a lot of money,he chooses to work at the community hospital because he wants to,not because he needs to.
I also found it ridiculous that after a few weeks of knowing Lily, Philip invited her stay at his house. I also feel that he wasn't in love with Lily, at least not at first. As I was reading the story, I got the impression that he was more in lust with her body (after all, she is a supermodel) and then began to love her after she came to stay with him at his house and he got to know her better.
Another side note I had with the book was how the author kept saying how beautiful Lily is.I'm pretty sure the readers would assume she's pretty. I mean, who's ever heard of an ugly supermodel?
What saddens me that most about "Beyond the Rapture" is that the story had so much potential,especially when it comes to the issue of race. Lily is the daughter of a black mother and a white father and has been scarred by seeing them constantly fight while she was growing up. While she believes that Philip is white, he is actually 1/4 black but since he looks and was raised as white, he has yet to fully come to terms with that part of his racial identity.
"Beyond the Rapture" could have been a story full of depth, but instead readers are given a book filled with bad punctuation and predictable storyline.
May 2, 2010
Beyond the Rapture is a sweet story in concept, but didn’t particularly work for me in execution. I had three main issues with the story.
First, I had a hard time connecting with and believing their love for one another. Within a week, they were professing their undying love for each other. The time frame unto itself didn't bother me, per say. However, I felt the story lacked some of the build-up and support for their feelings outside of pure physical attraction.
Second, and this is probably just my personal bias, but their issue over race just seemed to be over-emphasized. Given that this is a "interracial romance" novel (black woman, white man), I expected race to be a topic. However, with all the potential issues a couple could have the only one explored was race and, to a lesser extent, whether to have kids which actually circled back to the race issue. As a result, I think the characters were just a little flat and uninspiring.
Lastly, when it comes to contemporary romance, I have a hard time reading dialogue that I just can’t see anyone ever saying in real life. This was particularly frustrating with some text that was way too cliché for my taste. For example, “Philip watched her walk away, aching to go after her and sweep her up in his arms and take her to her room and make hot passionate love to her.”
If you are looking for a fast read that is highly romanticized and need to scratch that interracial romance itch, give it a go.
First, I had a hard time connecting with and believing their love for one another. Within a week, they were professing their undying love for each other. The time frame unto itself didn't bother me, per say. However, I felt the story lacked some of the build-up and support for their feelings outside of pure physical attraction.
Second, and this is probably just my personal bias, but their issue over race just seemed to be over-emphasized. Given that this is a "interracial romance" novel (black woman, white man), I expected race to be a topic. However, with all the potential issues a couple could have the only one explored was race and, to a lesser extent, whether to have kids which actually circled back to the race issue. As a result, I think the characters were just a little flat and uninspiring.
Lastly, when it comes to contemporary romance, I have a hard time reading dialogue that I just can’t see anyone ever saying in real life. This was particularly frustrating with some text that was way too cliché for my taste. For example, “Philip watched her walk away, aching to go after her and sweep her up in his arms and take her to her room and make hot passionate love to her.”
If you are looking for a fast read that is highly romanticized and need to scratch that interracial romance itch, give it a go.
July 19, 2007
Caught Up In The Rapture
In this sequel to 'A Twist Of Fate', we are introduced to Lily Jordan a Supermodel who collapses from exhaustion and we are then reacquainted with Dr. Phillip Cardoneaux, who happens to be the ER doctor that not only wants to take care of her health, but her heart, too. The two experience a 'love at first sight' encounter and although Phillip wants to embrace his attraction and love, Lily stubbornly fights her attraction due to issues with her ex-white fiance and issues with her black mother and white father. I thought the characters were well-developed and the storyline is definitely one for the hopeless romantic. Of course, Phillip's mother Suzette is still trying to maintain control. Although I found Lily to be a little selfish at times, considering her personal history, I could empathize with her, I can't say that I agree with her thinking, but I understood why she felt the way she did. 'Beyond the Rapture' is not the best interracial romance I've ever read, but it was still a sweet, quick read.
In this sequel to 'A Twist Of Fate', we are introduced to Lily Jordan a Supermodel who collapses from exhaustion and we are then reacquainted with Dr. Phillip Cardoneaux, who happens to be the ER doctor that not only wants to take care of her health, but her heart, too. The two experience a 'love at first sight' encounter and although Phillip wants to embrace his attraction and love, Lily stubbornly fights her attraction due to issues with her ex-white fiance and issues with her black mother and white father. I thought the characters were well-developed and the storyline is definitely one for the hopeless romantic. Of course, Phillip's mother Suzette is still trying to maintain control. Although I found Lily to be a little selfish at times, considering her personal history, I could empathize with her, I can't say that I agree with her thinking, but I understood why she felt the way she did. 'Beyond the Rapture' is not the best interracial romance I've ever read, but it was still a sweet, quick read.
February 28, 2008
Another proofread.
April 1, 2009
I loved Phillip Cardoneaux, but that darn Lily was just too much of a wuss for me. I couldn't stand her, but I read it for the Cardoneaux men.
Want to Read
October 31, 2012Too early to tell. I've just read a few pages so far.
May 21, 2015
Beyond the Rapture could of been such a great romantic read but it fell flat. There were spelling errors, predictable and overplayed storyline and boring characters.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews