Title: North to ALASKA
Authors: Debbi Macomber
What's it about?
That wintery Feeling: Cathy's heart was broken and her love betrayed so she did the next logical thing. She accepted a job and moved from Kansas to Alaska. There, she's making new friends and discovering her protective side when it comes to her students. But then a new man walks into her life and her life is turned upside down as she struggles to let go of her previous romance while exploring a while new relationship with a new man, who also happens to have a daughter that she adores.
Borrowed Dreams: Carly Grieves is on the search for an adventurous life that makes her feel safe and secure, something she hasn't had much of in her life. She's accepted a job in Anchorage that promises her a challenge, and maybe even a romance she's not looking for. Now she's in a constant state of inner turmoil as she struggles to accept her feeling and allow herself the happiness she's always wanted.
Favorites:
Favorite story: Borrowed Dreams was my favorite of the two. I honestly didn't love That Wintery Feeling, mainly because I didn't really like most of the characters, especially not the main characters in That Wintery Feeling. I at least was intrigued by Carly. I also understood Carly a little more then I was able to understand Cathy.
Favorite Character: The kids. Easy. But they're kids so... I mean, it's hard to beat them.
Least favorite character: Grady. I found him to be controlling, misogynistic, sexist, selfish , manipulative and cold. (And yes. I will tell you how I really feel. lol) I couldn't understand how he had ever had a girlfriend in his life, or why Cathy gave him the time of day and allowed him to get away with his crap.
Other thoughts:
I need to start off by being very honest here. I think my "girl power" feminist side may have been pulled out with this book, and I admit that those things absolutely effected the way I ingested this book. When I was done reading this, I got curious, however and checked the copywrite date and saw that it was copywrited in the early 1980's. Now, that doesn't exactly matter, but it did shed some light for me. It helped explain some of the more traditional views seen in this book, including the gender roles seen in the relationships.
With that being said I didn't understand why either Cathy or Carly put up with the guys they were interested in. They were all manipulative and bossy. I wanted to smack almost all of the guys at at least one point. The very fact that I disliked the guys made my affection for Carly and Cathy significantly lower, too, as I couldn't understand how or why they made the choices they made. While the stories themselves were not bad, my dislike for the characters kind of ruined the stories for me and left me disliking them both.
This does not mean that there were no good parts, though. There were a few moments here and there that I really enjoyed. There were emotions and topics that were very real and relatable, which is part of the reason I was so disappointed by the women. The truth is that, if you enjoy the idea of bossy men finding their match and somewhat falling to their knees for a woman and you don't have the inherent "Girl power!" battle cry going off in your head, you may love this book! This is very much about my own opinion. The writing is pretty solid, though I wish she would have used more "show me" language however the lack of "show me" language didn't hinder the telling of the story at all. Over all, I just didn't love this book as much as I hoped to.
What do I rate it?
4
out of
10 planes
But that's just me. What did you think about this book? Did you love it? Did you adore Carly or Cathy? Did you find yourself crushing on the leading men? Let us know in the comments!