Ruth Sims (1939–2014)

I skipped stories from authors that rate all their books. It's not the case with those that only rate antologies; I still don't like it but I can understand it like a recognition to their co-authors.


The Legend of Mountain Ash by Ruth Sims - 3 stars
Inner Truth by Alex Beecroft - 2 stars
Turnabout by Lee Rowan - 2,5 stars
Under the Shadow of Your Wings by Gillian Palmer. - 2 stars
Home Cooking by Brian Holiday - 4 stars
Mister Right by Rob Rosen - Skipped
Two Men: A Fugue by Sophia Deri-Bowen - 5 stars!!
Stripes by Nigel Puerasch - 4 stars
Morbidly Obese by Rick R. Reed - 2 stars
The Song Inside by Nexis Pas - 3,5 stars
Hitched by Michael Gouda - 1,5 stars
Cakewalk by Nathan Burgoine - 4 stars
Ships That Pass by Jamie Freeman - 2 stars
Work Experience by Bruin Fisher - 3 stars
Even Guys Cry by D.C. Juris - 2 stars
Touche by James Buchanan - 2 stars
Mallory's Gift by L-J Baker - 3 stars
The Uneven Chance by Charlie Cochrane - 3 stars
Honolulu Hula by Neil S. Plakcy - Skipped
Elephants in Her Tea by Julia Rios - 1,5 stars
Aim Higher by J.L Merrow - 3 stars
Ganymede by Lenore Black - 2,5 stars… (mer)

Counterpoint Dylan’s Story is a gorgeously written, deeply emotional historical romance that centers on some irresistibly classic themes. First, there is the theme of the misunderstood artist, way ahead of his time, who must follow his own creative genius regardless of conventional society’s pressure to conform. Then there is the poignancy of first love, unrequited love, and forbidden love all bound up in the first major relationship in the novel. Finally, the novel weaves in a storyline involving outsiders, redemption, and the chance to love again. Throughout, the novel grounds the readers in three-dimensional sensual detail that makes both the world of music and the world of Victorian England come alive for the readers. The characters are complex and flawed and their struggles are heart-rending and absorbing.

The story opens in Victorian England with Dylan attending the prestigious Venerable Bede School for Young Gentlemen. Dylan is a headstrong music genius from a well-to-do family. His father wants him to enter a respectable profession such as law or business, but Dylan is a volatile mixture of arrogance and innocence and cannot imagine doing anything other than his deeply personal vocation to compose music. In a further twist of fate, the music that Dylan is driven to compose is so ahead of its time that his own peers and mainstream society react with scorn, puzzlement, and maybe even fear disguised beneath an indifference designed to break him. His situation, as he struggles for opportunities to continue his work, gripped me in the same suspenseful way as the early part of Howard Roark’s story in The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Meanwhile, Dylan’s character is profoundly shaped by the two great loves in his life, someone who believed in him when he was an untried youth, and someone to whom he lends his own hard-won perspective and experience later on in life.

Val for AReCafe… (mer)