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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A unique love story, April 9, 2007
This review is from: The Night We Met (Harlequin Everlasting Love #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
THE NIGHT WE MET by Tara Taylor Quinn
April 9, 2007
Rating **** (4 Stars)
THE NIGHT WE MET is the story of a couple, Nate Grady and Eliza Crowley, and the love they shared from the day they met. At the time, she was studying to enter the convent at the age of 19, and he was already twice divorced and in his 30's. They could have been an ill-fated couple, but because of chances and circumstances, the two meet in a bar, a very unlikely place, and eventually marry. What makes this book special is that this is the fictionalized story of Tara Taylor Quinn's parents. Like her own parents, Eliza was disowned by her family because she chose to forsake her vows to enter a life with God, to marry a man that had been married and divorced twice. This caused great unhappiness with her parents, and for quite some time, her family would not have anything to do with her. But Eliza's heart told her to follow this path. For some reason, she could not walk away from Nate, a man she had just met in a bar. But after talking to him all night, she felt a connection to him and she fell in love.
Readers will enjoy the unusual love story that is told in THE NIGHT WE MET. They will share Eliza and Nate's triumphs and heartaches as they experience the birth and death of their children, infidelities, and other events that will threaten to tear their marriage apart. Eliza often wonders what would have happened if she had chosen not to follow through with Nate's wish to see her again all those years ago. But she also knows deep in her heart that she had made the right decision, that she was able to give her life to God in a different capacity, as a married woman, a wife and mother.
What this reviewer is finding with these EVERLASTING LOVE books is that often the stories themselves are anticlimactic. But once the reader has come to that last page, that reader will often feel a satisfaction from reading a great love story that spanned decades. In THE NIGHT WE MET, there are plenty of bumps in the road.
The EVERLASTING LOVE books are not traditional romances and often times they end with a death. As with nearly all the books this reviewer has read in this series, this one will have the reader grabbing for the tissue box. THE NIGHT WE MET is recommended. - Courtesy of Love Romances and More.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Night We Met: a romance choice and calling from the heart, July 28, 2007
This review is from: The Night We Met (Harlequin Everlasting Love #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
THE NIGHT WE MET is an innovative romance with a few shockers to those expecting a classic romance that adheres to prescribed genre conventions but will appeal to those wanting something unusual in their romance reads. Tara Taylor Quinn creates an emotional read that follows a marriage from the first moment a couple meets through til the end. In 1968 at the tender age of 19 years old, Eliza Crowley is two weeks away from becoming a postulant at St. Catherine's Convent when she enters a San Francisco bar to have a beer and ease her tension. She meets a much older man, Nate Grady. With little more than a conversation and a letter, Eliza agrees to marry Nate. In the beginning of their life together, Nate is the perfect man who touches her heart in all the right ways and creates a safe world. Then the unthinkable happens. Eliza no longer feels safe. Can their marriage survive loss, uncovered secrets and betrayal?
Stylistically, the author prefaces the stages of Eliza's life and marriage with descriptions of the arts (mostly music) and news of the year. Often these prefaces reflect the themes of safety and hope as well as moments that threaten one's sense of safety. The author develops this theme as it plays out in Eliza's heart and life.
Eliza is an intriguing heroine who chooses to be led by her heart. She is bad girl in the eyes of her church and family because she left her religious calling to marry a man --- a man who had been previously divorced. Since she is Catholic, creating a family with this man means not being able to take communion, one of the key sacraments, which cuts her off from her religious community. Eliza and and Nate's romance is not the typical we expect but rather a story of two flawed people who make bad choices andstruggle to keep love and marriage together. Some readers expecting a typical romance may not warm to the hero and heroine because of the betrayal. Eliza does the unthinkable and unforgivable in terms of romance genre conventions when she is betrayed.
Although THE NIGHT WE MET includes a few genre shockers, Tara Taylor Quinn, however, prepares the reader through her characterization of Eliza. Eliza understands a calling from God as emerging from the heart and she looks to her heart for steadfastness and choices. Her heart is not a wavering bundle of emotions but a principle that guides her. Some readers may not enjoy this book if they want to read a romance that adheres to rigid genre conventions but others may welcome an innovative romance guided by the heart and true to the character. Whether or not I would make the same choices that Eliza does seems irrelevant to me when the author so clearly shows the reader Eliza's character --- and why she makes her choices as well as how those choices make her heart grow beyond needing absolute safety. Tara Taylor Quinn provides perhaps the best ending to a marriage romance but one that will provoke tears in many readers.
Once Eliza chooses to marry instead of join the convent, the reader hears very little about any conflict, sorrow, or even nostalgia for the religious traditions and life she has left. From almost taking monastic vows to being excommunicated from her loved community is quite a large jump, even if motivated by love. Although this absence may bolster the rightness of her choice, some space given to this issue might have rendered her a more multi-faceted character for readers. Nevertheless, THE NIGHT WE MET is a highly recommended read that will deeply move the heart.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too deep for a romance novel, too shallow for a love story, July 3, 2007
This review is from: The Night We Met (Harlequin Everlasting Love #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
This was not a bad book. I finished it in one sitting, but I was never drawn into the story (I felt like I was reading about a life in fast forward--I mean, 40+ years were covered in under 300 pages) because I was never really drawn to any of the characters. This book was more plot-based than character-based, and I believe a book has to either be one or the other to be successful. The plot was like something out of a Richard Paul Evans novel, and that is not a good thing. The characters didn't have any depth, but then, we never really get to know them.
Though I found the author keeping her current, newsworthy events straight (as far as I know, which isn't all that much) was impressive, I felt most of them didn't really add anything to the book. Rather than feel she was adding authenticity to the time period at which certain paragraphs were set, I felt she was just trying to inject feelings of nostalgia, which didn't work on me. Even "Mr. Holland's Opus" (a pro-teacher's union propaganda piece) managed to do that. Sighs.
Now, I had read that the Harlequin company didn't publish romances where adultery was involved, and as soon as Nate cheated on Liza, I was like, what the heck? I thought Liza was a very weak woman for going back to him, acting like she just couldn't live without him. For some reason, the "hero" reminded me of Bill Clinton. His pathetic excuse for cheating on his wife was that instead of facing his weakness, he tried to hide it, just royally ticked me off.
These people were not soulmates--they loved each other, yes, but they were not soulmates. Because they were not interesting enough, their love story was not interesting enough.
This was my first time reading the Everlasting Love series (Love Inspired is too saccharine--you would think the characters only had feelings for each other from the neck up), because it made me think of "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks, which is a simply written, but a good old-fashioned (true) love story that seems to flow, instead of feeling like a combination timeline and family tree.
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