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Post by Cem on Apr 12, 2008 3:23:16 GMT -5
Heres hoping!!
I don't mind your panic, please panic away! I have been since I heard the summery for it!
Sigh, I wish I didn't have to wait a week for it, I just want to read it and get it over with now. Then the damage is done and I can quit torturing myself with my imagination! lol
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Post by Cem on Apr 16, 2008 16:14:54 GMT -5
I have it.
I read it.
I hate it.
For many, many reasons!!
I'm not gonna fully review it now, I'm steaming about it so all I'm gonna do is rant about what I hate. So I'll review it tomorrow once its set in a bit, and I won't just end up ranting (or thats the theory anyway! lol).
What I will say now is I get completely why you freaked at the ending rainpaint! I have to admit that when it landed on my doormat this morning I opened it and flicked to the back to see how it ended. And I'm so glad I didn't read this 3 days ago when I was feeling sick, cause I would have thrown up!!
For those of you who haven't read it yet, its bad! And may be the most infuriating book yet! Full and detailed review will follow tomorrow, so from there onwards there will be spoilers. You have been warned!
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Post by Cem on Apr 17, 2008 9:08:29 GMT -5
Ok. Vaguely calmed down. Lets see if I can do this without ending in a big rant! lol. Full summery followed by comments/notes on little things. Let me know if anything needs clarified.
Amy is spending her summer working as a riding instructor at the riding school attached to the college for extra credit (she is hardly ever at Heartland now apparently, she doesn't go there at all in this book). Then she gets an email from Alfredo Escobar, a guy she met once at a party a friend of hers was having, who asks her to come at work at the Hampton's and help him with his polo pony Impala. To which Amy of course agrees and she flys out of there at the end of the week.
Amy gets to stay in Luxury at the Escobar's estate and gets driven around in a chauffeured Limo, when she arrives she mistakes the housekeeper for Alfredo's Grandmother (just to give you an idea about how rich and how much luxury!!). While she's there Amy meets Alfredo's step mom Susannah, half sisters Celeste and Dacil, his father Pablo and grandfather Papa (she meets a lot more of his family too but these are the main people).
Papa doesn't believe in Heartland's methods, and is seems very hard on Alfredo too. Alfredo is afraid that he will lose his place on the team if they can't get to the bottom of Impala's problems as he believes that its his fault as a trainer that Impala is panicking when she's on a polo field. The rest of the time Impala is fine and a very friendly horse. Alfredo has trained her since she was born and she has champion polo horse bloodlines so no one can figure out why she's having problems.
Amy really struggles to figure out whats wrong with Impala and is constantly distracted by Alfredo's presence and whether it would be a bad idea to have a summer romance with him or not. Alfredo is also struggling alot. None of the men in his family seem to be giving him any support with Impala or making him feel that he's a good rider and its not his fault that Impala is having problems. Alfredo's mom left him when he was 5, and as far as he knows she never tried to contact him, so he feels like he was rejected and that its happening all over again.
Eventually Amy realizes that Impala is getting scared because she doesn't trust Alfredo. Alfredo and Impala have a close bond, but no trust. Alfredo had been training Amy to ride in a polo game in a few days time, but Amy then decides that it need to to be Alfredo riding her in the game. So she has him do join up with Impala the day before hand and teaches him that its important for him to spend time with his horse doing other things not just riding and training her. Alfredo (of course) does great in the match on Impala and so all is well.
That night after the game they're all going to a black tie event and so Amy goes as Alfredo's date in an expensive dress that his step mom bought for her when they went shopping together a few days earlier, and when there they dance and kiss and Alfredo tells her that he's naming his boat after Marion. He then asks Amy if she can stay for more of the summer now that Impala is ok, and she agrees.
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So thats it, thats the new book. And it stinks. Other thoughts and notes.
Amy spends a lot of time thinking about her looks and wearing skirts and much more make up then ever before. And now enjoys clothes shopping a lot, and wearing fancy clothes and spending lots of money on them too.
Ty is mentioned on 4 separate occasions. Once in passing near the start, then when Amy gets a update email from him about whats going on at Heartland (which he's in the habit of doing every week apparently), then when Amy emails him telling him about Impala, and then when she gets a reply from him. But thats it and there isn't really any interaction between the two.
In the book Amy gets on really well with Susannah (Alfredo's step mom) straight away and they go shopping together. Which I find really irritating for some reason.
Marion is also talked about a lot in this book for some reason. Amy seems to compare her not having her mother with Alfredo's situation quite a bit. Its really quite strange!!
Over all, the horse stuff is okay. There isn't a huge amount of it and its a bit on the weak side, not a great storyline, but it could be much worse. Amy is way, way different from the real books, and I had to stop reading the book several times cause I just wanted to throw it at a wall, or burn it, because of how they were writing her. Alfredo is quite annoying, he's fairly stuck up, in the sense that he sees it as strange that Amy would choose to do grooming and do everything for a horse herself. And thats something thats driving me crazy, the real Amy wouldn't look twice at a guy like him as anything more than a friend, he's just not someone she should really get along with that well. Or it seems that way at any rate.
So yeah, really don't like this one yet again.
Though I take back what I said yesterday about it being the most infuriating one yet. This and AWG are neck and neck. AWG is infuriating because Ty is the one who's changed a massive amount. In this one Amy's the one who's different. Hard to say ones worse than the other, just both incredibly infuriating because our beloved characters are so very different from how they're meant to be.
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Post by rainpaint on Apr 19, 2008 13:01:42 GMT -5
"I had to stop reading the book several times cause I just wanted to throw it at a wall, or burn it, because of how they were writing her."
*weak laughter* It's funny...but not...because these are our favorite books here!!!
Thank you for your summary - I know everything I need to know and more than I want to know. (not that you gave away too much information; it's just that my mind cannot wrap itself around the concept of this happening to our Amy, the Amy Fleming of Heartland).
So Lauren Brooke has proven her point - Amy has gone beyond the horizon. Can she come back now?!
They've just changed too much. We've said before, and I'll say again, I understand that people do change. It's just, this is way too much, way too soon. You're right, Cem, this one isn't worse than AWG because in AWG our beloved Ty was changed to someone bizarre! And this one is bad too because (well, one of the reasons it's bad) Amy has changed so much! The fancy clothes, etc.
*quotes from memory* "Amy didn't see the point in fussing over clothes." - "One Day You'll Know"
Maybe aliens have taken over their bodies...
*is trying to think of something intelligible to say*
I really, really hope that Lauren Brooke is not trying to draw our sympathy for Alfredo because his and Amy's situations are "similar." Please. Yes, I'm sorry the guy's mother left, but we weren't "there" when it happened. We didn't feel everything he was feeling. We grieved along with Amy - and so did TY!!!!!
Four e-mails between Amy and Ty do not count as communication. It is a weak attempt at showing us that they are still "friends."
Auuuugggghhhhh!!!!
You know, I realized something the other day. No longer do we (well, those of us who actually read the specials to tell those who don't how awful they are) read Heartland thinking, "Hm, I wonder what's going to happen with Amy and a horse?" Our intentions have changed. Now we wonder desperately, "Are Amy and Ty going to get back together?" The focus has switched from Amy and Ty and horses to just Amy and Ty.
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Post by Cem on Apr 20, 2008 14:14:36 GMT -5
"So Lauren Brooke has proven her point - Amy has gone beyond the horizon. Can she come back now?! They've just changed too much. We've said before, and I'll say again, I understand that people do change. It's just, this is way too much, way too soon. You're right, Cem, this one isn't worse than AWG because in AWG our beloved Ty was changed to someone bizarre! And this one is bad too because (well, one of the reasons it's bad) Amy has changed so much! The fancy clothes, etc. *quotes from memory* "Amy didn't see the point in fussing over clothes." - "One Day You'll Know" Maybe aliens have taken over their bodies..." Yes *nods head agreeing* Again I agree with everything you've said. You've basically just put everything in my head on paper (well...sort of) much better than I could! lol The quote you use from One Day You'll Know is one that kept running through my head as I was reading all the clothes bits (There were a LOT of them!) and my brain was screaming 'Wrong, wrong, wrong!! This is not Amy!!' every time she was deciding what to wear or wondering what Alfredo would think *gags repeatedly* I wonder how they can write our girl like this when she's said stuff like that in the past! You know, I have a new theory about why everything is so very different. Theres an Interview with Lauren Brooke on the Heartland website and she says in the second part of it that she comes up with the ideas herself then writes them with 3 other writers (explains some of the inconsistencies). I'm wondering if maybe there is a new writer come in for the Special editions who has changed everyone even more. That said she does say that 'people grow up and change' so clearly she's come up with several of the changes herself. But still... I don't know (copy's rainpaint shamelessly) *is trying to think of something intelligible to say* Maybe she just got bored and thought that her readers wouldn't mind the drastic changes. Which, for the record, ridiculous!! Oh, and by the way, you can find the interview here: First Part and Second PartI'm creating a separate topic for the Interview, cause I'd love to hear what you guys think of what she says too!! |
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Post by rainpaint on May 5, 2008 17:42:14 GMT -5
You know, for every single one of Heartland #s 1-20 and even the first special (A Holiday Memory), I was excited for each new one to come out. It was like, "Yes! A new Heartland book! I wonder what's going to happen."
It's changed from excited anticipation to dread. Now, instead of wondering what's going to happen, I fear what's going to happen.
Never before did I see a new Heartland and think with a silent gasp, "I wonder if something's going to happen between Amy and Ty!" That thought never even crossed my mind until BtH.
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Post by Cem on May 6, 2008 16:13:26 GMT -5
I know, its really bad huh? I see theres a new one out and think 'Darn, she's just gonna keep torturing us, how much worse is it gonna be now?'
Before BtH came out, the thought that a book could be bad, never crossed my mind. Sure there are some I don't like as much as others, but none of the real ones are bad. BtH, AWG and AStR though are beyond bad!!
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Post by horsemystique on May 15, 2008 14:25:02 GMT -5
Here's my theory:
They are holding everybody at the college hostage in one room and robots that look like the students, who go around and act like them. That explains why Amy has changed so much. And during one of his visits, Ty gets captured to and now his robot and acting like him. This sounds so much better. But then again it's just my way of getting through the fact that Amy and Ty has.......... I can't even say it!
The tv series is better than these last few books, in my opinion!
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Post by Cem on May 16, 2008 3:49:35 GMT -5
Robot theory. I like it!! lol
As for the tv show, I wouldn't know, I refuse to watch it. And I'm not gonna get in to a debate about it so lets leave it at that lol.
Seriously though, I do love the robot theory. Maybe someone should write a fanfic in that theory? lol
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Post by horsemystique on Aug 3, 2008 18:04:21 GMT -5
I just finished reading A Summer to Remember and do agree with most of what your saying. But......(everybody put away your pitchforks and torches)...........As I kept reading, I found myself liking Alfredo more and more. Wierd, huh? I mean, it can't be all bad, this could be what we all need. Amy goes out with Alfredo and realize that it doesn't feel the same as when she was with Ty. And when they see each other again, they realize that they still love each other. But if I go any farther I'll be telling an idea for a fanfic I have.
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Post by Cem on Aug 4, 2008 1:37:07 GMT -5
lol I do agree that in that respect it could be a good thing. I still don't like the guy though. My personal opinion of him. I think I've said this before, I don't mind the idea of Amy dating other people in college, its much more realistic that she and Ty aren't together the whole time, but I do think that Lauren could have created a better match for her than Alfredo.
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Post by horsemystique on Aug 4, 2008 9:52:55 GMT -5
Agreed. But something must really be wrong with me if I actually liked it when they kissed, lol. I think it's Amy/Ty withdraw.
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Post by Cem on Aug 6, 2008 14:20:12 GMT -5
LOL! Could well be!
I so want to get back to writing my current Heartland fic so I can get lost in Amy/Ty land again! lol And I will, tomorrow. Tonight I'm gonna spend time getting a bit more typed up I think.
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Post by HeartlandFan on Oct 24, 2008 14:42:55 GMT -5
I have a question.
I read on this thread that the French book #29 says that Amy and Ty get back together. I don't really get it. Do all the books come out in French first and then in english. I haven't heart of Heartland Book #21-29( in english) like some people are talking about. I just really hope that they come out as English some day soon. If anyone has a answer to my question please help.
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Post by Cem on Oct 24, 2008 17:10:02 GMT -5
I can't give a clear answer because there isn't one. There are many more books in French than English and as far as I can guess this is down to publisher contracts. French publishers have requested more books sooner, so they have them. My guess is the new books we're getting now, the special editions, are the equivalant even though I'm not convnced they follow the same plots. Like the titles are different and based on loose translations of the blurbs of the French books, they aren't the same. That said, I do think they are following a similar trend charcter development wise, ie them being morons, so hopefully there will be more special editions released in English that end with Amy and Ty back together.
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