Carol Devine

Shane
Part two of two
Shane and Mariah’s Story
A Horse Whisperer Novel by Carol Devine

When I started reading a pdf version of this book I was gripped with foreboding. I suspected it was going to be just one more of those over-romanticized fantastical tales of unending idyllic love and romance without more than a fig leaf of plot or dramatic tension. And, at first, I felt confirmed in my fears as I soldiered my way through many pages of a long (at least for me) romantic scene. Then, slowly, after having made my way through several more romantic interludes a glimmer of hope of rescue emerged: Shane and Mariah’s Story was becoming a different tale. Indeed, a different tale all together and one I’d call a rarity.
Shane and Mariah’s story was beginning to create a world and the story of a relationship that didn’t derive from illusion or fantasy but gradually emerged from the reality of the world the pages of Shane were creating. At first, Shane told the story of falling in love so well known in literature, but then (and this is the rarity part) as the pages turned the reader was granted the privilege of watching a couple then ascend to love. Not some love that folds on its first encounter with heartrending obstacles but one that is well-earned as it grows deeper from the very dialectic of the couple’s working through their issues together and facing life’s inevitable obstacles, not via the hackneyed story of two becoming one, but as a couple comprised of two distinct and remarkable people committed to one another.

One of the aspects of the book I particularly treasured were the couple’s fights. These were not the bitchy shouting and screaming episodes found so regularly in the relationships of immature people but the more quietly expressed hurts and conflicts that characterize healthy relationship between two separate but related people. Not once was there an attack on the self of the other. Also, each partner gave ground from their love and care of the other. Shane and Mariah’s Story would be good reading for anyone who desires to know how a healthy relationship feels and sounds. The values conveyed were unabashedly strong family values and made this reader feel good just to be reminded of them in these ugly times that we live in.

Even though not long in page count, Shane took on something similar to epic proportions as it unexpectedly followed this couple through the various stages of the life-cycle. The author, Carol Devine, managed this feat not by lecturing but by pulling the reader into the story and the story into the reader as I followed Shane and Mariah through the courtship dance, the challenges of coupling in marriage without losing one’s self or damaging the other, the joys and heartaches of raising children, and various physical ailments that accrue to all if they are blessed to live long enough. In these pages, Carol Devine brings to life one couples inspiring way of navigating those rocky shoals made all the more realistic and accessible in that they do so in less than perfect but all too human ways that left me with tears rolling down my face and a paradoxically aching and joyful heart.

My hat is off to Carol Devine. I rarely give 5 star recommendations. I can think of only a handful of books in my entire life that would be deserving of that stellar ranking, but I can readily give Carol Devine’s Shane 4.5 stars and congratulate her on a job well done, well done indeed.

Charles McCormack
… (más)

Amanda is celebrating her birthday in the last place she wants to be--at a wrestling match. The Beastmaster realizes who she is and decides to go off script and grab her from the audience and carry her out of the arena. Amanda is not amused so she files suit against him. Theirs is a battle fought in the gossip columns and their hearts.

I enjoyed this story. It was fun and quick, a perfect Sunday afternoon read. I liked the Amanda and Bram (the Beastmaster.) I liked their interactions from the anger to the amusement to finally listening to one another. I was afraid there would be no HEA but it turned out alright. This story and these characters took me away from reality for a few hours and I was glad to go.… (más)