Reviews for The Gift of Love

The average rating for The Gift of Love based on 26 reviews is 3.6153846153846 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-19 00:00:00 Greg Edwards This is a wonderful collection of stories of different kinds of romantic love and different kinds of families. There's a quadriplegic, learning disabilities, stepkids, half-siblings, why-didn't-you-tell-me-I'm-a-daddy, recovering addict, etc. They are all good. Another for the keeper shelf.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-09 00:00:00 Victor Cherdsuriya I've only ever read Lori Foster in short story form and to date I've been satisfied with all of them. I'll eventually get to her full length books but alas there are simply too many books to savor and only one of lil' ol' me. These last three short story anthologies Tails of Love - the stories feature animals and romantic love and The Power of Love) have all been compiled and edited by Ms. Foster and the proceeds have gone to worthy charitable organizations serving the Greater Cincinnati (Ohio) area. That's very cool. The proceeds for this book went to the Conductive Learning Center. All three anthologies have been decent and as usual, some stories were better than others. This anthology's jacket made me less than eager to read. I'd not heard of any of the authors except Ms. Foster so I kept putting this one on the bottom of the TBR pile. Like two disappointed 2 star reviewers before me, I thought these stories would be more about families (whatever form they might take) and less about romance. Meh. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong (!) - unlike those two, 2 star reviewers before me who were not looking for romance. What a crazy notion ‽‽ :) I'm always looking for romance and thought this was the bestest of all three anthologies. What a fool I was for waiting. Did I mention that nearly every story not only had romance but a bit of hanky panky too? I didn't? Huh, usually that's the first thing I mention. For the Love of Wendy by Lori Foster Thirty-two year old Jack Burke lost his wife 5 years ago when she and their unborn baby Wendy, were involved in a car accident. Wendy arrived prematurely with some intellectual trauma but she survived. Wendy's caregiver, 23 year old Briana, loves the little girl like she's her own and has fallen in love with her dad too. What I didn't love about this story was that Jack is interested in making Briana part of the family and even proposes out of nowhere but he's seemingly uninterested in falling for her. Briana is eager to marry and asks Jack to try to love her. That's the plot but it dampened the story a bit for me, until - Spoiler Alert - he comes around. ;) Ava's Haven by Jules Bennett This story is about Olivia and Colin who dated in high school and haven't seen one another since Colin left, breaking Olivia's heart. Olivia's life took a wrong turn after Colin's departure and now at nearly 30 (I think) she lives every day haunted by her regrets and pain yet trying to make the lives of others easier. Colin is a detective who has recently returned home and hopes his brave Livie will allow him to apologize for the way he left things and perhaps start over again. This is a touching little story about making amends with a past you can't change and accepting today for what it is while making the most of it. Skin Deep by Heidi Betts Rob MacGregor dreamed of being a famous photographer in NYC and when his dreams came true he found that life started moving so fast he couldn't keep up. Endless women, drinking, partying, drugs and more took its toll and now Mac's left NYC, been to rehab and runs a tiny little studio in small town Pennsylvania. Sophia LaRue was on the fast track in the modeling word until an apartment fire left her burned over 20% of her body. She spent months in the hospital and nearly a year in rehabilitation. Now she hopes to relaunch her career by showing the fashion world that the burns don't make her less beautiful but only Mac's talent can help. I enjoyed this story for it's faced paced love, reluctant hero and heroine and two characters that were flawed and real. Atticus Gets a Mommy by Ann Christopher The first thing I loved about this story was that's a continuation of a story in Tails of Love about Keegan, a quadriplegic and his Capuchin monkey Atticus. In Tails of Love we meet Lisa and Cruz, Keegan's sister and best friend respectively as they fall in love. In this story we are at their wedding, Atticus is on a sugar high and Keegan is fighting his attraction to a co-worker named Diana. In a nutshell, Keegan loves Diana but believes she needs a whole, functioning man. Diana has only known Keegan since his accident and loves him just as he is. There is a good bit of resistance to love in this tale which makes it sweeter in the end. I loved revisiting and continuing on with characters I've already met. The Redemption of Brodie Grant by Lisa Cooke In 1886 East Texas, which already sets this story apart from the other contemporaries, we meet 29 year old Brodie Grant on the day his sister Sara is wedding a "first-rate bastard", Leo Stover. The Stover family and the Grant's haven't gotten along since a decade before when Brodie left town after burning down the Stover's barn, killing their prized bull and nearly ruining the family financially. Still harboring animosity toward Brodie, Leo's 22 year old widowed sister Maggie Stover (Walls) tries to avoid Brodie but can't deny that he's just a gorgeous as he was when she was 12 and in love with him. One day, Maggie and her horse venture hours away from her home to a dangerous canyon she loved to explore as a girl. Her horse gets scared by a rattler and leaves Maggie injured on the ground. Brodie, who has spent the last 10 years as a tracker sets out to find her. They spend some lovely time alone in a cave and for 1886 this story got pretty steamy...which rocked. The Wolf Watcher's Diet by Paige Cuccaro I'm beginning to recognize that I have a thing for shifter stories. I love the idea of the pack family, territorial, possessive creatures, alphas and of course the whole mating for life idea, so it's no surprise that I totally dug this one. Minus the overuse of the word "perfect" I thought this one was nearly perfect. Our heroine is an average sized girl named Ella with a lot of humor and sass. Our hero is a fellow school teacher and part time werewolf, Luke. Ella is in a car accident then nearly abducted when shes saved (and 'accidentally' bitten) by a wild dog. When she wakes she thinks she gone crazy because she can hear a voice in her head. Then she realizes she is being tended to by that wild dog and she can not only hear but she can speak to the dog. Oh, yeah, then she notices that she's been turned into a dog as well. But the wild dog she's talking to keeps insisting that he isn't a dog, he's a wolf, werewolf, shape-shifter AND he can hear all her thoughts. Oh, and he's Luke, her co-worker and he promises he didn't mean to bite her. Now, normally shifters can change back and forth from human to wolf form at will but Ella has been diagnosed with a bit too much body fat (Luke loves her curves though) and has to exercise a bit in order to make her body allow her to shift. This tale would have been a great full length book and the fact that Luke can hear her uncensored thoughts is one of the best parts of the whole thing. Luke is really terrific and it's a shame he doesn't have his own book. The Fairy Precious Love by Gia Dawn A rather unique story about a wingless fairy named Summer who helps other wingless fairies learn to walk. Fairies become wingless a number of ways but most commonly it's by bat attacks or disease. The winged fairy live high atop the trees and mostly avoid the wingless for fear of their noncommunicable disease begin contagious. The wingless along with brownies, gnomes and other ground dwellers walk the earth below and live somewhat isolated from the winged who simply don't walk. The Fairy Prince named Wolf, Summer's beau before she lost her wings, has begun building a bridge between the two worlds by installing steps and balconies for the winged and wingless to reunite. It just so happens that Summer's newest charge is Wolf's niece and he carries/walks the girl all the way from her home atop the trees to her new/temporary home on the ground. He decides to stay a few days to be closer to his niece and to Summer. There is a lot of prejudice and sadness and hopefulness and happiness in this short little story and it ended up being one of my favorites because of all the emotion. Second Time Around by HelenKay Dimon Freshmen Serena Davis offered her virginity to the athletic and gorgeous Senior Heath Sanders, which he promptly declined. Mortified and hurt, it's still something Serena thinks about 15 years later. She's moved back home after a failed marriage and has avoided Heath until his son ends up in her English class. Heath regrets turning Serena down the way he did, but he doesn't regret saying no. He didn't deserve her. Now, after an injury spoiled his pro athlete dreams, and a gold digging girlfriend left him alone to raise their child, he's made amends, mostly, with this new life. Everything is going pretty good. He's got a job he likes, a great kid and a happy home, but things could be great if only Serena would give him a chance to say he's sorry and try to win her heart. I really enjoyed every aspect of this story and like many of the tales before it, it had a great hero, lots of romantic tension and a ton of sweetness.

Review # 3 was written on 2020-02-05 00:00:00 Chris Reitan Mixed bag so by author Foster-meh Bennet- Feel like it's at least a novel's worth of story in a very tight space but not bad Betts- Same as Bennet tbh, but I liked this one a little more Christopher- Do you now how rare it is to have a story like this that ISN'T inspiration porn? Kudos to the author. Cooke- I got very distracted by my desire to punch characters in the face. Also, I know what the author was trying for but she strongly implied romantic feelings that were...formerly inappropriate. Pre Mixed bag so by author Foster-meh Bennet- Feel like it's at least a novel's worth of story in a very tight space but not bad Betts- Same as Bennet tbh, but I liked this one a little more Christopher- Do you now how rare it is to have a story like this that ISN'T inspiration porn? Kudos to the author. Cooke- I got very distracted by my desire to punch characters in the face. Also, I know what the author was trying for but she strongly implied romantic feelings that were...formerly inappropriate. Pretty sure by accident. Cuccaro- Disgusting fatphobic bullshit where every woman beside the lead is a vicious shrew. AVOID. Dawn-cute but sliiiiightly bordering on inspiration porn and I just... the author seemed to be trying to say something about disability but good intentions don't keep people from fucking up. Dimon-Unsurprisingly enjoyed ETA oh also, tons of SERIOUS formatting issues. And weird shit like an entire page where "Lexy" turns into "sexy". It has to be formatting cuz there's weird missing and altered words throughout in the edition I read and it doesn't make sense that it's all the authors.

Review # 4 was written on 2011-05-27 00:00:00 Kerry Busheikin It seems that I am leaning towards short stories now, though I have no idea why. There are 8 stories inside this book. And I have already read one that made me fall in love with the author. The characters and the plot are way too cute! I won't be giving you the summary of all the stories because that would just be insane. Instead, I would choose a few to tell you. First off is For the Love of Wendy. I had been surprised when I read this because I didn't know what type of book I'd picked up from the library; the blurb didn't help at all. Plus this was the first story and it had made me intrigued. Why? Because the storyline goes like this: Jack needed a wife for his daughter. And who better else than the one currently taking care of her. Just so this doesn't sound like those Mills and Boons books, it had not been forced at all. It was a willing decision on both parts. Now, the unique thing about this is that (because I seldom ... ok never read books which have that in it) Wendy (and I quote) " was a child who had suffered trauma while still in the womb, and as a result, her intellectual maturity would never match that of her peers. " so it was like another door from the World of Books had opened for me. The story was okay, just that it seemed to be a little fast on the love thingy but that may just well be because I'd skimmed through rather than read. The next story I'll be featuring is Atticus gets a Mommy by Ann Christoper. Keenan wants Diana, and she him too. But there's a problem. Keenan is handicapped. That's to say he has no use of his legs. So he pushes Diana away. And there's that conflict. Diana doesn't want him to pull away, and that's why she has been pushing his buttons here and there, trying to make him confess his love to her. I admire the way Diana could wait years for Keenan. I'm not sure I could be like her. But I don't like Keenan's way of dealing with that. His unwillingness to just accept that Diana wanted to be with him was making me a little irritated. Especially when he does the 'You are mine' tactic and then pushes away from her again. It was kinda frustrating until he moved past the blockage and tried to mend the bridge between them. 3 stars for this. PS: Atticus is Keenan's monkey. Can you believe that? The third one I'm featuring is the one that I'd mentioned on top. It's tittled Wolf Watcher's Diet. It's super duper cute, funny and plain heart warming. Especially when Luke and Ella interacted. I love it when they chatted with each other. The plot goes like this: Ella was 'accidentally' bitten by Luke, who was a werewolf. She shifted. And woke up still stuck in her wolf body. And so she needed Luke's help to make sure she shifts back to a human again. By losing weight. Something about the extra fat that Ella has. Cue laughing sounds. This has to be the best story in this book. Love Ella and Luke ^__^ , though Ella had accepted her fate a little too easily. No questions, no what-the-hell?!!! moment that should have appeared. Still, 4 out of 5 Stars for me. Overall, it's a lovely book. Good enough to waste away your weekend time. 3.5 out of 5 for the entire packaging.

Review # 5 was written on 2014-02-03 00:00:00 Richard Williams Families come in many configurations, and every one is unique, made up of the personalities of each member. But the love that connects families is universal. Whether it is the love of parents for their children, the love between a husband and wife, the love between siblings, a love that transcends generations, or even the love for a family member never met, the family ties that bind us are the strongest and deepest emotional connections we experience. Families influence a person's development, how they treat others, and how they view life. In The Gift of Love, eight exceptional writers offer a variety of unique perspectives on what family love means and how it impacts our lives in ways profound and often surprising. Overall it was a great book of short stories. A few were out there, but interesting. It was the basics of life, love, recovery, and descovery. 4 star.

Review # 6 was written on 2011-10-26 00:00:00 Solomon Simmons I picked this up from the new books shelf at the library because I had decided to read some short stories this year and the description on the back of the book sounded like this would be an interesting look at different types of love with family relationships. It turned out to be more like the equivalent of eight mini romance novels that had nothing to do with the grandiose promises made by the description. The only story I liked was "The Wolf Watcher's Diet" by Paige Cuccaro; perhaps somewhat coincidentally, it was the only one without an explicit sex scene. Other than taking a few moments to read that charming tale, I would give this book a pass.

Review # 7 was written on 2010-06-15 00:00:00 Rita Goodell This was a great book!

Review # 8 was written on 2012-08-09 00:00:00 Kenneth Blake Not a promising one as mentioned in the book description. Too much romance in all stories except of one story, 'Wolf watcher's diet' which turned to be ok. So its not of my type of stories.

Review # 9 was written on 2013-08-11 00:00:00 Chaminda Senanayake All were pleasant, but not really really great. Good summer/beach read.

Review # 10 was written on 2013-02-07 00:00:00 Gretchen Lieff Really liked the stories by Heidi Betts, Ann Christopher, Paige Cuccaro, and Gia Dawn

Review # 11 was written on 2013-04-06 00:00:00 Calvin Gordin A nice compilation of short romance stories.

Review # 12 was written on 2015-07-26 00:00:00 David P sweet love stories...

Review # 13 was written on 2018-11-14 00:00:00 Lashima Sharpe "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," I've been reciting this Allen Ginsberg "Howl" opener aloud and in my head over and over throughout reading this book. That habit is going to stick. This is the Beat Generation Bible. Spanning east coast to west and everything in between, it's a time capsule containing the works of nearly 40 authors, both well known (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady and Burroughs) and lesser (LeRoi Jones and Diane diPrima, whom I d "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," I've been reciting this Allen Ginsberg "Howl" opener aloud and in my head over and over throughout reading this book. That habit is going to stick. During a time when the mainstream media seems to have only one or two messages to share with the masses, this was a refreshing and irreverent palette cleanser and a reminder that one can and should form their own nuanced, complicated and unique opinions. As Philip Whalen recognized, it is "possible for a poem to be its own shape and size".

Review # 14 was written on 2012-08-21 00:00:00 Durand Adams A really nice sampling of "beat" literature! Sort of like a greatest hits compilation! Parts 1-3 were full of writings that I love, and that were wonderful to revisit! I especially enjoyed reading the "Joan Anderson" piece! Part 4 fell pretty flat for me, as did part 6 and the appendix. But Part 5 was my joy! The writings in it gave me the feeling of the people on the periphery of the Beats - the children, lovers, spouses, etc.! I really glorify and romanticize many of the Beat authors and literature, and this section grounded me a bit, showing some of the real consequences of that lifestyle and movement. Strong stuff. And strong book!

Review # 15 was written on 2015-11-27 00:00:00 Rita Burns For those who enjoy the Beat writers, Ann Charters compiled an accessible collection of their work. What I enjoy - the book remains on my bookshelf - is reading the poetry and prose of the lesser known Beats.

Review # 16 was written on 2012-08-06 00:00:00 Geni Carrell depuis

Review # 17 was written on 2017-02-11 00:00:00 Nicholas Drakulic you can't have a Beat reader, have a "San Francisco Renaissance" section and not have Kenneth Patchen =]

Review # 18 was written on 2020-07-20 00:00:00 Nathan Varner The sea darkens the voices of the wild ducks are faintly white

Review # 19 was written on 2010-11-24 00:00:00 Scott Shunkwiler Great sampler of the writings of the Beat generation. It has a lot of good work, but some of the selections are a bit stingy and finding some of the original works is easier said than done.

Review # 20 was written on 2014-05-22 00:00:00 Paul Butler We followed this and even stayed at the Chelsea Hotel, New York.

Review # 21 was written on 2010-05-31 00:00:00 Drew Chamness It took me a long time to get through this but it was an excellent review of the many beat poets and how they were all connected. I enjoyed their later works more than their early works because they seemed more experienced and wise about life. Maybe it's because I'm old now too. I gave it only 3 stars because beat composition is not my favorite - not because the book itself wasn't well done. The author did an excellent job of reviewing each writer - their history, works, etc - before each section.

Review # 22 was written on 2012-09-14 00:00:00 Stephen Wong Ann Charters is one of the main authorities on the Beat Generation, and in this book, an anthology of texts by and about the Beats, Charters traces the emergence and growth of this youth movement from the late 1940s and 1950s to the late eighties, at which time some of the authors, seen as oppositional when they first appeared, had finally become part of the American literary canon. The book begins with the texts one would expect to see: passages from Jack Kerouac's On the Road, William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," and poems by West Coast writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder. What one may not have expected was to find work by poets like Bob Dylan, who does have many literary themes and approaches in common with the central Beat writers (but in addition to Dylan, Charters might also have included work by Jim Carroll, an important poet and diarist whose work reflects many of the same techniques employed by writers like Kerouac and Burroughs). Moreover, Charters includes work by many women writers, which does something to balance the Beat canon, typically dominated by male writers. In addition to poetry by Anne Waldman and Diane di Prima, Charters includes memoirs both by Carolyn Cassady (an ex-wife of Neal Cassady) and Joyce Johnson (romantically linked with Jack Kerouac for a time). Among the really useful inclusions in this book are Kerouac's "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose," "Belief and Technique For Modern Prose," Ken Kesey's essay on Neal Cassady's death, and Norman Mailer's terrific essay on hipsters and Beats, "The White Negro."

Review # 23 was written on 2010-10-04 00:00:00 Jhon Pere Peace's Red Riding quarter jumps forward three years, this time following the screwed up lives of half-decent police officer Bob Fraser, and burned out journalist Jack Whitehead. Both are dangerously obsessed with Chapeltown prostitutes, and are sucked into an investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper's slaughter of these women. Both men are dangerously on the edge, and the plot follows the hollow, desperate plummet of their lives as events overwhelm them, and the extent of the corruption of West Yorkshire police force becomes clearer. Like 1974, this is brutal, compelling stuff, but not for the faint of heart, nor those enamoured with happy endings

Review # 24 was written on 2018-01-07 00:00:00 Jeremy LeCain I read about 1/2 of this book in November, while I was on my trip to Rome, and I really enjoyed it, but found some of the featured authors a bit plodding. And yet, I picked it up to fill in some gaps in my historical knowledge of the movements of that period and some history of the city I live in (San Francisco), and influences to my social circles and lifestyle. I had no idea how much of an influence this small group of notable "Beats" had on society and later generations. I remember watching cartoons that featured Beatniks, and seeing Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, as a caricature of a Beatnik (or Beat's girlfriend, as they were a male-dominant group, with women mostly in the side-lines). My sister, only 6 years my junior, had no knowledge of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco; Couldn't even recall having heard of Beatniks, Beats, Beat Poetry, many/any of the major authors/poets, or Beat *anything* when she moved to San Francisco! Shocking! Although in retrospect, my knowledge was hardly rich with understanding, even though I'd read some Burroughs, knew of Kerouac and On the Road, Ginsberg and Howl. I appreciate this anthology because Ann Charters does a great job of positioning the works, the sentiments and feelings in relation to history. Coming from only a rudimentary knowledge of the era and the motivation of the Beats, it's helpful to have the stories and poems skillfully placed alongside the back-stories of the people involved and the times they lived in. This book reminds me of the best parts of evaluating writing in a college classroom - an adept, knowledgeable guide can make a huge difference to understand, or better, *liking* a piece. While I may have been predisposed to liking Beat writing because of it's influence to my life and culture, I very much believe Ann Charter's book has given me much deeper appreciation and stronger liking for the works I've read in this anthology so far.

Review # 25 was written on 2012-10-21 00:00:00 Enrique Solorzano I wasn't sure how to rate this book. It was a well edited volume, I'm just not crazy about the raw material. However, having published on Kerouac, I know feel better having more Beat under my belt. And it was nice not to have to read these works in their entirety. That's not to say I didn't enjoy any of them. I really love Ginsberg's poetry, and I'd never read Kaddish before. There were other good pieces as well, but there were also several that really didn't deserve to be published. Because part of the Beat movement was the democratization of art, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and others would often urge their friends to write and most of what these friends wrote is very blah in my opinion. I think I enjoyed the three essays on the Beats by Mailer, Watts, and Holmes at the end of the book the most. And though the Beats do annoy me, mostly because I'm not particularly interested in reading about drug trips and the like, a show I've started watching has given me perspective that makes me better appreciate the social forces they were up against. The show is Mad Men and follows ad execs in the 50s and their stifling suburban lifestyles. It makes the Beats feel like a real breath of fresh air.

Review # 26 was written on 2011-08-07 00:00:00 Anthony Goins If memory serves me, I probably bought this book when I was 19 or 20 years old. I read several selections at the time, largely from authors or poets I already had interested in, and then this book sat on my shelf for a number of years. Fast forward to summer vacation 2008, and wanting something to pass the time. Being over 600 pages, it takes quite a bit of time to get through, but by in large the gems highlighted are truly worth your time. The book is divided into three chronological sections, essentially amounting to the founders, the coming of age of the 'Beat generation', and later reflections. The introductions preceding each section sets the stage and offer interesting bits of history to accompany your reading. Naturally not everything can be Ginsburg's "Howl" or Corso's "Marriage", but it's a pretty thorough sampling of this literary movement. What I found most interesting were the autobiographical works by the wives of the writers written later in their lives, which is included in the last section. That part in particular is worth a read, especially if you feel you've already experienced all you need to concerning Beat writers.