The following is taken from a recent review:
I know some people out there have given this a negative review, but I found The Advent of Lena to be a refreshing twist on the "Beauty & the Beast" story. Yeah, the good looking male character is a jerk and his motives for seeking out Chloe are purely based on selfish reasons, but throughout the story, he changes. Maybe not as quickly as some would like to see, but he changes slowly in a realistic and believable way. Once he truly "sees" Chloe for who she is-funny, smart, adorably quirky-her looks start to not matter for him. Even when he screws up towards the end and sleeps with a woman whom he doesn't like (lusts after-a bit, but he really doesn't like her), he really does love Chloe. But he's human and therefore, flawed. You get to see his other twisted relationships and how those were wrong not only for him, but for those women as well. Chloe is probably the first and only woman he has been honest with when he does confess all to her. And that is what makes the ending so bittersweet. He does love her at the end and even though they are no longer together (due to his mistakes and his hurtful actions), there is a sense of HOPE at the end. Chloe doesn't forsake him, she doesn't reject him; she listens to him and let's him know that they need to get to know each other all over again and she needs to be able to trust him. But, she cares for him and she can tell that he does care for her. The author has truly shown that while we as a society judge others by how they look, there are those who can learn and do learn to look beyond the superficial. At the end of the story, in my mind, they end up together and get their happy ending. While it may not be a "happily ever after" all the time, I do feel that it's a "happily ever after" for most of it. Kudos for the author to show that it's who someone is inside that can make us happy and not looks. Looks fade but souls don't
More reviews can be seen here at Amazon.
I know some people out there have given this a negative review, but I found The Advent of Lena to be a refreshing twist on the "Beauty & the Beast" story. Yeah, the good looking male character is a jerk and his motives for seeking out Chloe are purely based on selfish reasons, but throughout the story, he changes. Maybe not as quickly as some would like to see, but he changes slowly in a realistic and believable way. Once he truly "sees" Chloe for who she is-funny, smart, adorably quirky-her looks start to not matter for him. Even when he screws up towards the end and sleeps with a woman whom he doesn't like (lusts after-a bit, but he really doesn't like her), he really does love Chloe. But he's human and therefore, flawed. You get to see his other twisted relationships and how those were wrong not only for him, but for those women as well. Chloe is probably the first and only woman he has been honest with when he does confess all to her. And that is what makes the ending so bittersweet. He does love her at the end and even though they are no longer together (due to his mistakes and his hurtful actions), there is a sense of HOPE at the end. Chloe doesn't forsake him, she doesn't reject him; she listens to him and let's him know that they need to get to know each other all over again and she needs to be able to trust him. But, she cares for him and she can tell that he does care for her. The author has truly shown that while we as a society judge others by how they look, there are those who can learn and do learn to look beyond the superficial. At the end of the story, in my mind, they end up together and get their happy ending. While it may not be a "happily ever after" all the time, I do feel that it's a "happily ever after" for most of it. Kudos for the author to show that it's who someone is inside that can make us happy and not looks. Looks fade but souls don't
More reviews can be seen here at Amazon.
Hypochondriac Gambler is a work in progress addressing addiction and co-dependency issues, as experienced in a matrix of illness and addiction suffered by a contemporary professional.