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Among the Tulips
Turning forty is a major milestone for Annie Hooper, who has been married, with stepchildren, since she was seventeen. The birthday gift of a trip to Holland offers some unexpected and exciting changes to her routine. And when a car accident in Amsterdam leads to her rescue by a handsome celebrity, she begins to wonder whether God has a new direction for her.
Victor Richardson offers his château to Annie so she can recover and resume her vacation—with him as guide. And while Annie’s leg mends, she discovers that her Prince Charming requires God’s grace, and her help as well, to make a fresh start of his own.
Victor Richardson offers his château to Annie so she can recover and resume her vacation—with him as guide. And while Annie’s leg mends, she discovers that her Prince Charming requires God’s grace, and her help as well, to make a fresh start of his own.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 28, 2024
This book was okay and I'd probably give it 2.5 stars if I could. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of romance novels but if you love the romance genre, you’ll likely love this. Cute story but not a lot of details are fleshed out. There’s the typical romance formula, which tends to be why I don’t care for romance. Girl meets boy, boy and girl fall head over heels, something or someone conspires to keep them apart, but love prevails and they live happily ever after.
Having said that, the story was cute and it was a fast read and there was enough to keep me reading until the end. It’s an enjoyable, quick, escapist summer read, especially for fans of the genre.
Having said that, the story was cute and it was a fast read and there was enough to keep me reading until the end. It’s an enjoyable, quick, escapist summer read, especially for fans of the genre.
May 17, 2022
One of the dumber 'Love, Inspired' books I've read. Or should I say *attempted* to read.
Annie married a man with TWO children when she was 17 and in high school. ((!?!?!?!)) WHY a man with two children would marry an underaged teenager, I have NO idea. She then served as their dreaded stepmother for twenty-ish years, while they're birth mother "poisoned" them against her... but now, in their thirties, they're co-dependent on her? How does *THAT* work? She does their laundry, etc, for the love of Mike! I. Don't. Think. So. If Real-Mumsy was so wonderful, why wouldn't they take their laundry to HER?
So Annie's husband Harry died FOUR YEARS ago, and she's still sitting in a wallowing ball of I-don't-know-what, and her friends are all but shoving her out of the country to *LIVE* (←as if you can't where you are???), whilst her grown moronic step-children are "aghast" at her taking a trip to Europe, because reasons. Apparently what the author says, goes, and it doesn't have to be grounded in logic.
And the author says, "HOLLAND!!" Nevermind that the country is The Netherlands. Holland is a region of The Netherlands, not a country - a common mistake made by people who aren't familiar. You'd think the author would do her research. But vague references to tulips and windmills apparently doth a crappy novel make.
On her first day in HOLLAND ((sigh)), Annie is in a car, and *CRASH!!* We're not told anything other than that Annie is bleeding from the head whilst people are screaming in her face in Dutch and she's crying out "ENGLISH! EN-GLISH!!"... which, by the way, Dutch people are taught in primary school, so I'm not following why the author thinks nobody could possibly communicate with her.
The author tells us that she's in Haut, so the locals don't speak English, there. If you look up Haut on Google Maps? It's a suburb of Amsterdam, one of THE largest cities... so they *would* speak English. So far, batting negative one thousand, Wolverton.
Enter handsome celebrity (of course, *rolls eyes*) VanderStudMuffin who speaks English, because. Nevermind that the likelihood of a global celebrity being the one to rescue our damsel is probably one in a billion, but whatevs. We don't really have to write believably to be runner up for six or eight RITAs, apparently.
Speaking of writing, try this one, from page 22:
"Finally her link to the local language turned back to her. 'Are you hurt?' Insurance papers. Driver's license. What all was she supposed to show the officer? 'Yes.' "
!!!!! THAT'S writing?! Are you kidding me. That's a M.E.S.S.!! That's broken pieces of disjointed nonsense that has NOTHING to do with the question, chucked at the reader for absolutely no reason. If the writer is trying to indicate confusion, she should WRITE that confusion, not just sentence fragments, hello. GAH!!
Then VanderStudMuffin has internal dialogue for several pages about her sweet innocence at forty during her time being drugged (!?) and how jaded he is, because wealth and fame and looks, and... wait, is that a CROSS around her neck? *HISSSS!!!* Well, maybe it's just jewelry. Maybe she's not a ((*HISSSSSS*)) Christian like his parents...
And I'm hating this book only ONE chapter in.
Chapter two begins with this lovely bit of writing: "Annie groaned. She heard someone speaking to her, though she couldn't understand him, and then she felt herself prodded to sit up." WHO ON EARTH prods an unconscious hospital patient to sit up, hello??? What is that?!?!?
A doctor comes in and tells her NOTHING about her injuries (the author hints maybe at a fractured tibia)... there's a cast, but the doctor just gives her his phone number and walks out. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. And no mention of a concussion or anything (that's not until Chapter 3), just "she needs to be with someone for 48 hours" - which is twice as long as a concussion's monitoring time, so... more bad writing? Or is that integral to the very-grasping plot? I'm confused.
So she's going home with Victor (VanderStudMuffin has a first name!) to his uber-awesome chateau van Holland because he's "hot" (←her words, I kid you not. This is STELLAR writing, here.). She's 'stiff', but okay, and her legs are "bare of hose, with remnants of blood on her legs", except for the fact that in the accident her knees were bleeding... apparently Gawd healed her to the point where there are no scabs or cuts, anymore? (((((SIGH.))))) She's also given crutches, but not taught how to ambulate with them, which is NOT procedure, either... lest she end up with chaffed armpits, but what do we as readers know?
So there she is, in his UberPalace, having breakfast. She pulls pills she was never prescribed and/or never picked up out of a pocket (?!), and has a conversation with the guy about making the papers. Like she's front page news? She never realizes there's got to be more to it to make the FRONT PAGE with photos? Ayeeieeiee....
Then she with a maid giving her a tour, and the maid is making insipid, ridiculously banal comments like "And this is a masterpiece he just acquired..." Not a Degas or a Vermeer or a VanGogh... no, no. Why write details, or flesh out the story, or impress the reader when we can be vague and uninteresting?
The characterizations are awful, the creative writing non-existent, the dialogue trite, and the description missing in action. Heck, there's barely coherent thoughts in this waste of paper. At this point, I threw it across the room and headed for the computer to end the misery.
DNF-ed at pg 71. I have literally *HUNDREDS* of these 'Love, Inspired' books that I got at book sales during a crazy whim to collect them, and this one? It goes in the 'get-rid-of-it-now' pile. It's just not worth it.
Annie married a man with TWO children when she was 17 and in high school. ((!?!?!?!)) WHY a man with two children would marry an underaged teenager, I have NO idea. She then served as their dreaded stepmother for twenty-ish years, while they're birth mother "poisoned" them against her... but now, in their thirties, they're co-dependent on her? How does *THAT* work? She does their laundry, etc, for the love of Mike! I. Don't. Think. So. If Real-Mumsy was so wonderful, why wouldn't they take their laundry to HER?
So Annie's husband Harry died FOUR YEARS ago, and she's still sitting in a wallowing ball of I-don't-know-what, and her friends are all but shoving her out of the country to *LIVE* (←as if you can't where you are???), whilst her grown moronic step-children are "aghast" at her taking a trip to Europe, because reasons. Apparently what the author says, goes, and it doesn't have to be grounded in logic.
And the author says, "HOLLAND!!" Nevermind that the country is The Netherlands. Holland is a region of The Netherlands, not a country - a common mistake made by people who aren't familiar. You'd think the author would do her research. But vague references to tulips and windmills apparently doth a crappy novel make.
On her first day in HOLLAND ((sigh)), Annie is in a car, and *CRASH!!* We're not told anything other than that Annie is bleeding from the head whilst people are screaming in her face in Dutch and she's crying out "ENGLISH! EN-GLISH!!"... which, by the way, Dutch people are taught in primary school, so I'm not following why the author thinks nobody could possibly communicate with her.
The author tells us that she's in Haut, so the locals don't speak English, there. If you look up Haut on Google Maps? It's a suburb of Amsterdam, one of THE largest cities... so they *would* speak English. So far, batting negative one thousand, Wolverton.
Enter handsome celebrity (of course, *rolls eyes*) VanderStudMuffin who speaks English, because. Nevermind that the likelihood of a global celebrity being the one to rescue our damsel is probably one in a billion, but whatevs. We don't really have to write believably to be runner up for six or eight RITAs, apparently.
Speaking of writing, try this one, from page 22:
"Finally her link to the local language turned back to her. 'Are you hurt?' Insurance papers. Driver's license. What all was she supposed to show the officer? 'Yes.' "
!!!!! THAT'S writing?! Are you kidding me. That's a M.E.S.S.!! That's broken pieces of disjointed nonsense that has NOTHING to do with the question, chucked at the reader for absolutely no reason. If the writer is trying to indicate confusion, she should WRITE that confusion, not just sentence fragments, hello. GAH!!
Then VanderStudMuffin has internal dialogue for several pages about her sweet innocence at forty during her time being drugged (!?) and how jaded he is, because wealth and fame and looks, and... wait, is that a CROSS around her neck? *HISSSS!!!* Well, maybe it's just jewelry. Maybe she's not a ((*HISSSSSS*)) Christian like his parents...
And I'm hating this book only ONE chapter in.
Chapter two begins with this lovely bit of writing: "Annie groaned. She heard someone speaking to her, though she couldn't understand him, and then she felt herself prodded to sit up." WHO ON EARTH prods an unconscious hospital patient to sit up, hello??? What is that?!?!?
A doctor comes in and tells her NOTHING about her injuries (the author hints maybe at a fractured tibia)... there's a cast, but the doctor just gives her his phone number and walks out. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. And no mention of a concussion or anything (that's not until Chapter 3), just "she needs to be with someone for 48 hours" - which is twice as long as a concussion's monitoring time, so... more bad writing? Or is that integral to the very-grasping plot? I'm confused.
So she's going home with Victor (VanderStudMuffin has a first name!) to his uber-awesome chateau van Holland because he's "hot" (←her words, I kid you not. This is STELLAR writing, here.). She's 'stiff', but okay, and her legs are "bare of hose, with remnants of blood on her legs", except for the fact that in the accident her knees were bleeding... apparently Gawd healed her to the point where there are no scabs or cuts, anymore? (((((SIGH.))))) She's also given crutches, but not taught how to ambulate with them, which is NOT procedure, either... lest she end up with chaffed armpits, but what do we as readers know?
So there she is, in his UberPalace, having breakfast. She pulls pills she was never prescribed and/or never picked up out of a pocket (?!), and has a conversation with the guy about making the papers. Like she's front page news? She never realizes there's got to be more to it to make the FRONT PAGE with photos? Ayeeieeiee....
Then she with a maid giving her a tour, and the maid is making insipid, ridiculously banal comments like "And this is a masterpiece he just acquired..." Not a Degas or a Vermeer or a VanGogh... no, no. Why write details, or flesh out the story, or impress the reader when we can be vague and uninteresting?
The characterizations are awful, the creative writing non-existent, the dialogue trite, and the description missing in action. Heck, there's barely coherent thoughts in this waste of paper. At this point, I threw it across the room and headed for the computer to end the misery.
DNF-ed at pg 71. I have literally *HUNDREDS* of these 'Love, Inspired' books that I got at book sales during a crazy whim to collect them, and this one? It goes in the 'get-rid-of-it-now' pile. It's just not worth it.
May 30, 2009
I have read and reread this book at least 3 times. I love how the author takes her heroine, Annie Hooper, and gives her wings to fly in a very unusual yet wonderful setting. Of course, it helps to have a handsome, very loving hero in Victor. I enjoyed how Ms. Wolverton gave the character of Victor such love and compassion and depth that is quite frankly is missing in so many other romances. Maybe that is what makes it such a great read. I'd highly recommend this to any romantic.
May 30, 2024
Sweet romance BUT a lot of God / Christianity talk.
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January 12, 2009YAI-Wol
July 15, 2013
Wonderful story about Love and Friendship. :)
March 7, 2023
I actually read this one earlier and just never got around to listing it. It was a very sweet romance.
May 2, 2016
Another typical fantasy romance but I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews