Romance

Laura Templeton ha crecido en el seno de una adinerada familia californiana. En su privilegiada atalaya, el único sueño que tiene desde que es adolescente parece simple y fácil de conseguir: un buen marido y una familia con salud. Y cuando Peter le propone matrimonio está segura de que su vida será perfecta. Pero su matrimonio no tarda mucho en tambalearse: Peter demuestra no ser ni el marido ni el padre que ella veía en sus sueños de juventud y decide divorciarse. Un sueño roto. Una vida rota. Y dos amigas que, una vez más, serán un apoyo primordial para que Laura, antes de levantar nuevos sueños de éxito y felicidad, consiga descubrir quién es ella en realidad.

Liked the series but did get tired of strong women who become weak and unable to make decisions just because of a guy. ( )

Finding the Dream ends the Templeton trilogy. Just to recap: In Daring to Dream flamboyant Margot Sullivan found love. In Holding the Dream Serious Kate Powell found love. In Finding the Dream finally, it is practical Laura Templeton's turn in the spotlight. Would she find love again after all she had been through? Here is my favorite part of the entire series: throughout the pages of Daring to Dream and Holding the Dream, Laura's bad marriage and equally awful divorce had been playing out. It's the one story line that successfully weaved its way through the entire trilogy (aside from the cheesy Seraphina treasure hunt). Peter Ridgeway, a Templeton employee, seduced Laura when she was a teenager. He only wanted to marry her so that he had a permanent "in" with the family hotel business. But after cheating on Laura and stealing their two daughter's inheritance he flew the coop, marrying a Templeton rival. (Another story line that ran through all three books but was unsuccessful.) Now, it is time for Laura to climb out of the ashes of a failed marriage and find a true love for herself. Just as Margot and Kate had climbed out of the wreckage of their own personal traumas. And just like Margot and Kate, Laura finds a love interest who is wrong for her in every way. True to the Nora Roberts formula, refined Laura and rough-around-the-edges Michael Fury clash at every turn. How will they ever fall in love? ( )

Finally! It's been awhile since I've once again read a Nora Roberts novel I can appreciate. After Margo and Josh's relationship left a bad taste in my mouth, and Kate's and Byron's disappointed in several ways, I had hoped Laura's story would not follow the same route and it thankfully wasn't bad at all.

This last installment in the Dreams trilogy focuses on Laura Templeton and Michael Fury. Laura is still trying to put her life back together after a bad divorce from Peter Ridgeway, who cheated on her and stole money from her and their two daughters Allison and Kayla. Michael returns to the Monterey area after a long hiatus in order to began a business training and selling horses. Romance ensues.

This follows pretty much the same structure that you would expect from any NR novel in terms of the highs and lows of the relationship, where everything is awesome until at least one party starts to question why the other is possibly interested in them. So no deviation here, however now there are a couple of cute kids thrown in the mix and it was fun to read Michael's sweet interactions with them in addition to his relationship with Laura.

I think NR tried to make these two characters seem interested in at least learning about some aspects of each other's lives outside of the Templeton house where most scenes took place and interests, however this part of their relationship was lacking and it makes me wonder how they'll deal with that in the future (e.g. Michael going to the country club, Laura meeting Michael and his old friends at a bar, even the two of them going anywhere on a date, etc.). But overall, their relationship and chemistry seemed pretty believable to me.

I also enjoyed Laura's character for the most part. Yes, just like Margo and Kate, she had her own weaknesses and periods of self-doubt, but I felt that she was the strongest of the three and her actions made her tough and believable. She was great, all the way through to the ending.

Certain parts still annoyed me, like how there was no epilogue or that certain characters like Peter Ridgeway didn't necessarily receive their comeuppance. I really thought that would've been tied up neatly somehow. Like maybe a fight scene or something that incorporated the legal system. Also it appeared that Michael received a bad reputation when he was a kid that carried over throughout his life but the way some of the characters obsessively handled their feelings about him was a bit too over dramatic.

Anyway, this third novel redeemed this series for me and I'm glad I read it. ( )