Customer Reviews

Blue Skies

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hank Coulter notices a young woman at a bar, beautiful but a bit shy and inexperienced. He's been chugging drinks with his buddies all evening and matters rocket out of control. He hasn't used protection and also rushes heedlessly to his climax, then passes out in his truck -- and in the morning only vaguely remembers the night before, including the girl's name.

Carly Adams had been blind until surgery temporarily restored her sight and she faces a future of repeated surgeries which eventually will no longer be able to retain her vision. Her unexpected pregnancy threatens her newfound sight sooner than anyone expected, putting her new life and grad school plans on hold.

Hank steps up to the plate despite Carly's vehement reluctance to have anything more to do with him, and marries her to help her through the pregnancy. Falling hard for this beauty while she is determined to keep her independence and still is hurt, angry and distrustful, Hank has his work cut out for him.

This is another visit to the Coulter and Kendrick clans, a great addition to her recent books. If this is your first Catherine Anderson, welcome to ranch life on the high dry plains of eastern Oregon, so different from the Pacific coast cities and mountains. You'll want to explore the stories of the rest of the families as soon as you finish Blue Skies.

Catherine Anderson's writing skills are like a fine wines - they only grow better with age. This is an absolutely wonderful book, packed with heartrending emotion, but deeply satisfying. Anderson again pens the ultimate male hero in Hank Coulter. Tall, rugged, masculine to the core, yet this male oozes kindness and sensitivity.

In true Anderson fashion, she pivots her story around a blemished woman. Here it is the enchanting Carly Adams. Blind since birth, Carly's doctors have given her a new lease on life with a recent eye operation. Her sight restored, she innocently sets out to taste all life's experiences. One of those morsels happens to be the handsome Hank Coulter.

Outside a seedy bar, in the back seat of Ford pickup, Carly and Hank perform the mating game with successful consequences -- they manage to solve the mating formula. One month later reality rears its ugly head and then what becomes of two strangers who will soon be parents?

In Anderson's novels, her two main characters are always cast together. Her characters usually are forced to work on their relationship - and work they do - but along the way the reader enjoys the effort.

This skilled author controls emotion with an iron fist. Catherine Anderson inflames her words with immense passion pressuring her reader to turn the pages.

This is part of Anderson's fine Kendrick/Coulter series and I think it is the best of the lot. I look forward to Zeke's tale.

Carly wants to see everything now that she is no longer blind, and one of the first things her eyes fall on is well worth a second look. Hank Coulter is all man, and their dance goes from the barroom to the bedroom. Then, soon after, Carly discovers she's pregnant, and though Hank made a big impression on her, he can't even remember her name when she calls to tell him. To make matters worse, pregnancy will probably undo all the surgery's miracles, leaving her blind once more.

Hank's memory needs some work, but his honor functions well. He immediately wants to do the right thing and marry Carly. She agrees out of need, but as Hank spends weeks caring for her and showing her all she can see before the world goes dark, convenience turns into reality. Hank's world is full of innocent peril, forcing Carly to choose love or life.

(...)Catherine Anderson's name on a book is all that is needed to assure readers of a story that goes on the keeper shelf. It will always be heartwarming, filled with characters who jump off the page to your soul. (...)

(...)

I have to agree with C. Everett's review on this one and I see we're definitely not the majority. Unlike her, I did manage to finish it-how I don't know-it was a struggle to keep turning the pages. Carly was naive, immature and cold and grinded me from the very beginning and Hank, trying to be an honorable guy, instead turned into a shmuck. I found it hard to believe that mere days after sleeping with him, she knew she was pregnant. She was a real dink to Hank for what happened in the truck and wouldn't accept her own responsibility until the book was nearly finished. He spends most of the book blaming himself for what happens to her and she spends just as much time blaming him. However, Anderson is a good author and she has written some great books. This just wasn't one of them.

Blue Skies has been well reviewed so I will just say that I really enjoyed the book. What a storyline. I thought the characters of Carly and Hank were both very deep. I have grown to love the Coulter/Kendrick families. They are so loyal to one another and have a deep love. Hank wanted only to have a little fun with Carly..a one night stand, no strings. But...Carly finds out that she's pregnant. Hank has felt heartsick since that night and looks for her but he doesn't know her last name. When he finds her he bullies her into getting married. But...he finds that she is really everything he would have picked in a wife and wishes that things could have started differently. He is so kind and gentle to her and always thinking of her and she appreciated all he does but is still very reserved because she knows that eventually when she goes blind he will leave her. The story is very tender and shows that love can overcome all obstacles. Love is for the long haul. This is a keeper. Highly recommend.

While I agree with cheshirecat that it's not a great thing that Bess goes behind Carly's back and so does her father there was a point. Carly was being stubbornly independent and refused to see the whole picture. She couldn't raise a child both financially and physically with out Hank's help and Bess could see that. Bess went behind Carly's back because she was Carly's friend, not because she felt Carly was stupid or couldn't take care of herself. Same thing for Carly's father.
Aside from that, wow! Amazing book. Very emotional, I cried and laughed and my only regret is that we don't hear more about them in Bright Eyes (Zeke's Story). The characters, even secondary ones, are well developed and you really relate to the heroine (emotionally anyway).
Plus it was just fun seeing the whole Coulter gang again.

Catherine Anderson has a way of creating characters that feel like family. You are right there with them feeling every emotion and stuggle they are going through.

Catherine provides extensive information about Carly's blindness and what she has to face. And Hank is just the man to stand by her.

I found the ending to be powerful and emotional. Love it!

What is there NOT to love about Blue Skies and all of Catherine's books?? She knows how to take a tragic situation and turn it into a wonderful romantic 'informative' story. She does so much research into a medical situation and comes forth with all the correct information about it and turn it into a wonderful interesting book that you just can't put down till the last page is turned. Keep up the great work Catherine.

Catherine Anderson can construct a sentence with the best of them but her characters--her heroines especially--are so unsatisfactory that it's hard to identify with them. Even when she tries to give them human foibles, she can't really commit. When Carly, the 28-year old blind from birth virgin who throws caution to the wind one night and has unprotected sex with a stranger in a pickup truck, finally admits that her resulting pregnancy is at least partly her fault, you get the idea that Anderson herself doesn't really believe it. The fault is clearly Hank's, for he is the one Anderson makes pay. He willingly gives up many things to "do right" by Carly, who is nauseatingly Pollyanna-ish one moment and self-sacrificing the next, hurting both herself and Hank, and apparently giving little thought to her unborn child. Anderson pushed sympathy for Carly so hard that I could not help rebelling. I liked Hank marginally better but by the end, I was tired of them both. Added to this is Anderson's tendency to tell far more than we either need or want to know about her particular hobby horse--her heroine's disability. The research shows and it gets tiresome.

Anderson seems to want to teach, preach and play social worker, all while writing a romance novel. Writing well can't overcome this uncomfortable mix, at least for me. If she wants to write about heroes and heroines overcoming disabilities--and clearly she does since most of her books are in this vein--she should take a look at how Laura Kinsale did it, with humor, understanding, compassion, and a satisfying resolution. Otherwise, I'll take my romance straight, thank you, without the pathos.

Wow, way to go Catherine Anderson, your book has been out since Jan 6 and already nine reviews!! From what I can gather your readers either hated the novel or loved it. I fall in the second category. I loved it! It may have been heavy in medical terminology but it was never boring!