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I am dancing on sunshine that you are visiting my little part of Parris's paradise here on Goodreads.
I write for the reckless at heart Not surprisingly, I identify with my novels' characters, both the protagonists AND antagonists. I suffer with their angsts and bewilderments and rejoice in their joys and triumphs.
And I believe that if we heroically hold fast to our own vision for ourselves in our journey’s confrontations and challenges, Life WILL surely manifest our dreams and goals and visions, as it does for my characters in my novels.
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Parris Afton Bonds is mother of five sons and author of nearly fifty published novels. She is co-founder and first vice president of Romance Writers of America, as well as, co-founder of Southwest Writers Workshop,
The Parris Award was established in her name by the Southwest Writers Workshop to honor a published writer who has given outstandingly of time and talent to other writers. Prestigious recipients of the Parris Award include Tony Hillerman and the Pulitzer nominee Norman Zollinger.
Declared by ABC's Nightline as one of the three-best-selling authors of romantic fiction, the award winning Parris Afton Bonds has been featured in major newspapers and magazines as well as published in more than a dozen languages. A New York Times best seller, she donates her time to teaching creative writing to both grade school children and female inmates ~ both of which are captive audiences.
Our intrepid heroine is one Anne McLennan, who travels to Texas in 1838 to join her husband, Otto Maren. Otto's a Bible-thumping preacher and he's out in the wilds of Texas with a bunch of fellow German immigrants setting up a new homestead. Why this spoiled young miss from Barbados (or whatever island it was) married such a man is beyond me, but that's the story…
Anne's ship was delayed by weather and not-so-sensitive Otto and Co. went on without her, so she's in need of someone to escort her to her husband - enter scout Brant Powers. No surprises, but the two don't get along very well, especially since our spoiled and oh-so-self-centered heroine doesn't take orders like don't wander off by yourself if you don't want to get bit by crocodiles and/or man-eatin' injins. More stuff like that, until Anne's finally delivered to her husband's not-so-loving arms (he likes her body though).
Poor Anne. Out in the middle of nowhere with a bible thumping husband, and all she can dream of is being in the arms of Sir Colin Donovan, who she's been in love with since she was ten and she's sure he's gonna come and rescue her from her boring husband and whisk her away from the bad, mean world.
Well, to make a long story short, the village is set upon by a savage band of Indians, and Anne is taken captive by the chief's son and held as a slave and sexual banging board for months until it's time for Brant to come to the rescue. Or is he her knight in shining armor? Hmmmm?
"The little idiot! She was always asking for trouble. Bringing death to every man she slept with. Maren, Pa-ha-yu- quosh, himself nearly, and God knew how many more there might be."
OK, enough spoiling. If you've read enough of these older bodice rippers, you can probably guess the rest of what's coming, because there are no surprises. None.
OK, so I like the older romances as much as the rest of you, but unfortunately Anne was just too self-centered and not very likeable. . I might have ended up giving this an OK three star not bad for a rainy afternoon kind of read, but this new Kindle version has formatting errors that cannot be ignored. I obtained it via a freebie sale, but I'd be a might ticked off if I had paid full price. You be the judge.
"But now, the gratification of this childish whim had tom her from everything she had held dear."
"She turned her head slowly to eyed the girl."
"When he left to tend the horse, she hungrily put the rest of the beams in her mouth, chewing them until they were pulpy, savoring the bitter flavor on her tongue. "
"At first the Ups only brushed hers, like butterfly wings."
Knocking off a half star for the typos, 2.5 rounded up to three stars.
This could have been a good book, with a lot of historical detail that was well written, but there were too many parts that really nauseated me!
The h, Anne has a first marriage to a psycho religious fanatic, a second one (to the H, Brant) based on nothing but sex (reluctant on her part), and in between she's kidnapped, raped by a weirdo native guy who enjoys having her pick lice off his pubic hair, "rescued" by hubby #2, though she's hardly grateful, they argue, have sex, argue, have sex, argue ad nauseum, she leaves hubby #2 (with his blessing as she made it clear more than once she hated him) despite being pregnant with his child, unwittingly ends back with hubby #1 (whom she thought was dead) who goes berserk when he discovers her pregnancy, beats her, kicks her, and makes her lose the baby, which she miscarries outside and buries the baby, only to have a dog later dig it up and eat it (HORRIBLE!!!), discovers a talent for planting tobacco after hubby #1 bites the dust (finally), returns temporarily to hubby #2 (who legally isn't her hubby at all) to ask his help in finding Colin, the man of her (childlike fantasy) dreams, whom she realizes soon after they're reunited is not so great up close, goes back to planting tobacco, does really well, then suddenly has a revelation that Brant (a.k.a. hubby #2 who really wasn't) is her true love after all!
That's more crap than you'll find in your toilet after a bout of diarrhea!
Considering all Anne went through, you'd expect to like her and be rooting for her (like with her successful tobacco business) but for some reason, Ms. Bonds chooses to make her so unpleasant, it's as if she wants you to dislike her. (It worked for me.) She's snarky and nasty and while Brant deserves it to some extent (the guy spends too much time with an erection) she goes too far when she tells him (despite being heartbroken about the baby) that she's glad she lost it, even after learning that his first wife died after she aborted his baby. Talk about an insensitive bitch!
She also (after a lousy job of hiding it) admits how attracted she is to him and wants to sleep with him, but that doesn't change her love for Colin. WTF!!! How could she be so clueless, not to realize that if she really loved Colin, she would have stayed out of Brant's bed, no matter how horny she felt.
She had so many lousy personality traits I find it hard to believe any man could love her, and I thought Brant was a real jerk.
And I was one too, for reading this book, which will be the last by this author I waste my time with.
Much as I enjoy Parris Afton Bonds' books, I found too many problems with this one, problems a proofreader and/or editor should have picked up. In one instance the way it's written has a person with three hands. Then there's Brant's chin tattoo. All throughout the story it's red, but near the end it's blue. So which is it? I still enjoyed the story, but those gaffs - easily fixed with a proofreader and/or editor - brought the rating down.
This was the first book Bonds has written that I'm not crazy about! The ending is awful...to abrupt. The plot is good, but the main character, Ann, is horrid! What a self centered harridan! I could not stand her. She cries rape when, in fact, it's not. She loses a baby and, oh well! Are you kidding me? She screeches at the father line it's all his fault...what?! I don't know what Brant saw in her ever. She is a thankless, horrid, immature woman with an ugly soul. So, basically, I didn't much like this book. The other thing I have to mention is the lack of editing....it us so poorly put together it's hard to read and follow! I had to reread passages over once or twice to figure out what the author was saying. It's very bad! No, I could never recommend this book...what a disaappointment!
I couldn't put this book down. I loved watching how Anne grew and blossomed as a character and seeing how the different men in her life changed along with her.