Customer Reviews

The Last Good Man

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I look forward to every new Kathleen Eagle Novel. Her writing is superb and her stories are always so captivating that I can't wait to find out what will happen next. One of the things I've loved best about her books is that her characters don't play mind games with each other. However, this book had the tone of a historical Harlequin romance. Both characters had to constantly guess about the other's feelings and actions. What will he/she think about this? How do they really feel? Does she care that I spent the night at my ex-wife's house? There wasn't enough love or emotion between the characters for my taste. Even at the end, after having been married for many months and coming to terms with their relationship Clay still was unsure whether his wife wanted to stay with him or return to her fast-paced New York life.

I much prefer the stories where the characters are both aware of their own feelings, and want to share them with the other. That they don't still have doubts about their relationship even when the story ends.

It's worth picking up from the library, but I don't recommend buying it. It's not like "This Time Forever," "Reason to Believe," "Sunrise Song," or even "What the Heart Knows" - it's not one I would care to read again.

The Last Good Man by Kathleen Eagle is a beautiful lovestory that deals with a serious issue. Savannah and Clay Keogh will stay with me for a long time as I felt they were real people, living their lives along with mine in Sunbonnet! This book is excellent. Characters were well developed...I hated it for it to end. Ms. Eagle, you are simply wonderful!

In response to the reviewer who thinks Savanah is pitiful, fortunately you haven"t walked in her shoes. Kathleen Eagle has done it again. This story of Savanah, a beautiful model with breast canser will help us all to empathise with victims of cancer. It is also a great love story between Savanah and Clay. My description of the story will not do it justice. The varied relationships are handeled so well you feel as though you have visited with real people. Do yourself and every friend or sister you know and highly reccomend this book. The only problem with Kathleens books are they leave you wanting the same degree of talent and you find most other writers are lacking. If you haven"t read her other books, pick up "SUNRISE SONG" be ready to be higly entertained educated,(without preaching), and totally blown away.

I'm very glad that this was not the first Kathleen Eagle book I ever picked up, otherwise I would not have read any of her others (and would have missed out on a great author).
The main female character, Savannah, is just so selfish, self-absorbed and pathetic that you are hard pressed to feel any empathy for, or relate to her, in any way. She has a six-year old daughter,Claudia, mature beyond her years, who has to do the "mothering" at times because Savannah is not able to cope emotionally with all that has happened in her life over the last few years. The inappropriate role-modelling, and it's possible future consequences, made me shudder, yet another mark against the main female character.

The main male character, Clay,is well written, a nice blend of masculine macho and sensitivity. He is easy to relate to and care about, but he takes so much emotional rubbish from Savannah that it makes you want to scream at times.

Boring, turgid scenes of endless conversations, trying to flesh out and explain Savannah's background and present behaviour, make this book feel bogged-down and heavy. Early sex scenes without emotional bonding between the reader and characters don't help,either, and come across as almost bizarre in their description and placement in the story!

I was so bored and annoyed by this book, mainly because of Savannah that I skimmed a lot of it in the end.
Could not recommend, even with good characters like Clay and Claudia in it, the annoying, unlikeable character of Savannah overshadows everything else.

It's been five years since Savannah's perfect body has graced the pages of Lady Elizabeth's Dreamwear Catalog. Now, no longer so perfect, she's come home to Sunbonnet, Wyoming. Clay doesn't care why Savannah has come home, only that she has. Savanna is all he's ever wanted. But when he comes calling, she won't leave her Aunt Billie's house. Not in the light of day, anyway. She's running scared. Hiding from the town and its questions. Hiding from the pain. Kathleen Eagle takes on a difficult subject with insight and humor. And a word of warning: find a comfortable spot before you sit down to read, because you won't want to move for awhile.

I enjoyed this book but found the heroine, Savannah, to be exasperatingly self-absorbed. I loved her daughter, Claudia, though! As a mother and author, of NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL, I appreciated the bond between mother and daughter. I was also curious about Kole, the elusive Indian who never even appears in the book, but who is the father of little Claudia. But maybe that's another book...

As a ranch wife married to an honest-to-God cowboy, I usually avoid modern "western" romances. They tend to be cheesy, inaccurate, and basically mind-numbing to anyone who knows the difference.

However, after reading all the positive reviews of the storyline of this book, I decided to give her a shot.
Wow! Not only did she have a wonderful romance story (one of those books where you wish your man would read it and take notes), but it was realistic. I *know* people like these characters. Clay didn't seem to spend a whole lot of time on his place (who was checking his cows?), but other than that it was true-to-life. *This* book is what real ranchers and cowboys are like.
And the romance...*sigh*. Neither character thought they were worthy of the other. Each trying their best to be what the other needs. That's what love should be, I think. :) This is one of those books where you'll close the cover and realize how good it's made you feel. What a gentle, wonderful story.
I'm off to find some more!

Erin

I enjoyed the story, and the writing, but it really didn't seem like a romance to me. The story focuses a lot on Savannah, and her recovery, and I couldn't quite buy the falling in love part. I would have labeled it more women's fiction, because it is really more about her. I rate it a 3 because of my disappointment in it not being a romance, not for poor quality of writing or story.

I disagree with Ms. Houston in her unsympathetic view of Savannah. She may know women who've had breast cancer, but it's completely different from someone who's had it and survived it. A point no one has brought up, is the fact that Savannah is also suffering from depression. In addition to dealing with the fear and shock of cancer and having a portion of her body amputated, she's also trying to get up out of bed. A woman that has depended on her looks for her whole identity and income, now feels she no longer has that. The book, in my opinion, nails these thoughts and fears. Ms. Eagle did her homework. I would recommend this wonderful book to anyone. It also makes a truly "from the heart" gift for a woman in recovery. The subject is out of the closet. Thank you, Ms. Eagle, for your sensitive approach to a devastating subject.

I wanted to love THE LAST GOOD MAN. After all, the heroine is a breast cancer survivor. As a fan of Kathleen Eagle, I was looking forward to her treatment of a sensitive issue, for the people who have/had breast cancer and those who love them. But Savannah Stephens, the heroine in question, very nearly deep sixes all Ms. Eagle's good intentions. Self-involved to the point of pathetic, she spends 95% of the book so prickly and unkind to Clay, the wonderful hero, a man who has always loved her, that she becomes very nearly irredeemable. She has a wonderful, intelligent daughter who adores her, so her reluctance to get out of bed in the morning at the beginning of the book is mind-boggling. She marries her best friend for the sake of her daughter's security, then refuses to share his bed or let him touch her. Clay, meanwhile, suffers a wealth of hurt and dismay as he learns that simply having this woman in his life is not enough. He needs her trust him with her pain, and her withholding of that trust makes this book one of the saddest I have ever read. In the end, as you would expect, Savannah comes around, and when she does it's like all the ice she was buried under melts away to reveal a woman who knows she'd be a fool to let go of such a fantastic man. The finaly chapter saved this book for me and brought it up to a 4-star, as opposed to 3-star, read.