77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful storytelling!, September 11, 2005
This review is from: Almost Perfect (Perfect Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
ALMOST PERFECT is a great example of storytelling at its best. Ortolon captures the true emotion of love lost and found. This is a heartwarming demonstration of true love; even if our characters do not want to admit it at first. Just because Maddy and Joe haven't seen each other for years, doesn't mean their attraction has died. If anything, they are hyperaware of how things used to be.
It takes courage to face our worst fears, admit them and then do something about them. Not only does Maddy have an obligation to her friends, in their challenge; Joe has his own fear to face. In fact, I know this is "Maddy's story" but it was Joe who captured my heart. He loved Maddy so much, years ago, and she turned him away. Of course he's afraid to trust her with his heart again and Ortolon does not make their struggle to trust each other easy. These characters have to earn their Happily Ever After. I'm certain that's what makes this book so meaningful and gives it such depth. There's no fluff here. Yes, there are funny scenes, but these are "real people" with real emotions and no easy fixes. There are very poignant scenes in this book, that challenge the reader and make them aware that love isn't always easy, it's often uncomfortable, but true love is always worth it!
Well done, Ms. Ortolon!
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71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesomely Perfect Read, September 8, 2005
This review is from: Almost Perfect (Perfect Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
Three best friends,former college roommates are thrilled for their author-friend/roommate on her best selling book, until they realize that she used them as examples of ... what NOT to do. They reluctantly decided she may be correct, so they set out to conquer their fears and hopefully reach their ultimate goal.
Joe and Maddy made me laugh, cry and want to shake some sense into them. In my opinion, that is a mark of an excellent book, where the writer engrosses the reader to the point where the reader is feeling what the characters are feeling. This book, I was unable to put down. A definite keeper!
I am eagerly waiting to read what happens to Maddy's other two friends, Christine and Amy as they struggle to overcome their fears as Julie Ortolon never disappoints. She is a must-read in my book.
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139 of 153 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A male's review, March 1, 2009
This review is from: Almost Perfect (Perfect Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
I wish I had written this review a few months ago, when I read this book. I had never read a romance novel. I love adventure, battle, confrontation, and other guy stuff. I like to write fiction too, however, and happened to wonder what women as characters are actually like as depicted by women, for women. The novels I read are written by men, and depict women like other women have been depicted by other male writers these writers have read, to a great extent. Men are guessing when it comes to women, so I decided to read a romance novel, and since it was a trilogy, to buy all three.
This writer is a very good writer. She kept me turning the pages, and her prose is very moving. I like romance, but as a sub-plot to adventure. This was the first and only novel I've ever read which was focused almost totally on romance.
I'm not going to discuss the plot much. Presumably other reviewers have done that. What was interesting to me was what the women felt like, and how they talked to each other, or e-mailed with each other. I'm 61, so have a generation gap as well as a gender gap, but love is timeless, and adventure novels I read also deal with young, handsome men and young beautiful women.
Maddy is very appealing as a character, and very different from any depiction of a female I've ever encountered in a novel written by a male. These women are so different that I decided that it's probably better for male writers to keep creating females like they always have, since their readers might be kind of shocked if they portrayed women the way they actually are.
The male character is somewhat feminine, in my view. He's of course very physically masculine, and has the totally masculine history as an Army Ranger, but just as male writers create females the way they perhaps wish they were, female writers probably tend to create male characters the way they wish they were. This guy is so compassionate, loving, and great in almost every respect that I found it a bit unrealistic, and his obsession with love was a bit overdone, for me, as a male.
However, people vary infinitely, so such men certainly do exist, even if they are a bit rare; so given that we want a very appealing male character, I had no problem with it.
The author does need to learn a bit more about guy stuff. Her male character mentions that he saw the bullet which had struck him coming at him. That's impossible. Bullets travel at speeds of 3000 feet per second, and are very small. As a Vietnam veteran, I'm very familiar with this, and shooting; and if a writer is going to deal with ballistics and war, she should pay a bit more attention to it.
I had trouble putting the book down for the first half, and then was ready for them to get married, but Julie wasn't ready for that, and I did get a bit frustrated at all the problems which kept that from happening. I almost wanted to shout "Have pity on them. They've suffered enough."
Since this isn't the type of fiction I tend to enjoy, (or assumed I wouldn't for my whole life), I can't rare it 5 stars, since it's not as enjoyable to me as the kind of books I rate 5 stars. However, I almost gave it 5 stars, since for a book which contained almost none of the action and adventure I enjoy so much, I did enjoy it a great deal. She keeps you turning the pages, and writes very moving prose. She's simply a very good writer who wrote a very good story which kept me reading, and kept me entertained.
So much so, that a few weeks later, I picked up Just Perfect, and I read that one in a few days, so know about Christine, and inevitably I'll read too Perfect, to see what happens to Amy. My expectations were not high, and I was very surprised by how good this novel was; and at the same time I learned some things about the female mind, intellectually and emotionally, at least from the perspective of a popular writer who is a woman, and whose readers are women.
Mainly, I read a good story, and although I can't read these types of novels too often, it wouldn't surprise me if I read another one of hers at some point, after I finish this trilogy. I can't rate it for her readers, since I'm not a female, but as a reader of fiction, I thought it was very good.
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