This is a Harlequin, so I kinda expected they'd find a miraculous cure or a specialist would come out of the blue to offer a high-risk surgery that would, of course, be successful, but they didn't! And frankly, I think that's wonderful! Not all happy endings are happy because they are perfect. Some happy endings are perfect because you can really feel a love that you know will get them through any challenge the future brings, and this had that feel.
I think the only thing that would have made this better would have been a 'five years later' panel where we would see him with his dog or cane playing or walking with his son and maybe Zoe holding a daughter proving to us they had indeed met the challenge and were 'living' examples to themselves, their kids and us that love can indeed give us victory over the difficult times. I much prefer endings that remind us that we can overcome and be happy in spite of life's challenges.
however you said, but for me there is no love, it is only the deceid of harlequin to say any kind of bully from men, toward woman is love (?), when is the convenience of men, they treater well to woman, otherwise if it is not his convenience they treater her like shit, always the SAME!!!!!!!!, even this story is no diferent, after he treat her so horrible since the beggining, how can she feel love? or even, to likes? if she suffered for his rejet. where is the love?
In order to find the love, you first have to understand the hero looks strong, but he is wallowing in fear and darkness. Men are hardwired to want to provide for their family, to want to protect the women in their care. It's in their DNA, and he is losing his ability to do that. On top of that, he is wracked with guilt for having failed to do that once before already.
I'm irritated that the story does not give us more about Diane. They tell us she survived the plane crash, but we don't know about after. It's clear, however, that whatever happened to her, he thought it would have been better if she dies in the crash. It must've been bad for he hasn't forgiven himself. And knowing that feeling of utter helplessness is going to become permanent? He's terrified! Truly, nothing could make a healthy man feel more worthless and afraid, and sadly, people who are afraid have a hard time remembering to be considerate of others. They are stuck in the deepest, darkest pity party that you can imagine. And that is where what love he CAN show starts.
At first, he thinks she's just an easy fling. She's acting like it and doesn't correct him when he says it. He has no way of knowing how special it was to her. She certainly didn't push back to tell him. The next time he sees her and for some time after that, ALL he can think about is HER convenience... He's going blind. He doesn't want to burden her or his child. He thinks a blind husband/father can't protect his loved ones. He probably thinks he can't even take care of himself and it HURTS! It hurts all the way down to his soul, and he sees his problem as so big, he just can't see hers as quite as serious. He knows hers can improve with time. He knows his will only get worse and it's because he cares about her, that he's refusing her.
But the heroine grows stronger, and once she realizes WHY he won't try to commit to a relationship, it is easy for her to forgive him, but she knows they can't become a family unless he takes control of his fear. When she realizes this, she says some harsh things that make him think. Just like her love for her baby pushed her to grow and gave her the strength to face her problems, so does his love for her make him realize he had to face HIS problems, and his journey to go see her was proving to himself and her that he had the strength to try. He said he was still afraid, but it was walking gave hier the strength to realize he could still be a husband and a father even if he was blind, and his walking to meet her was showing her and himself that he could so it.
It seemed to me that the ML had a classic case of PTSD. As a veteran, the VA would take care of that, and if he didn't want any publicity, he definitely had enough money for private treatment. And yes, it is definitely something that can be treated. I have seen what PTSD does to veterans, and it often leads to broken relationships, severe depression, irrational anger, alcoholism, drug abuse, and just about everything that goes with those things. Going blind was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. He was already broken, and definitely needed professional help even before he started losing his eyesight. It was nice that he overcame it, but that is as close to a miracle as I can imagine.
I actually liked the story best for the FL's journey to recovery. I thought that her story was the best part of the book. I also really liked her father (the non-biological one, obviously!). No matter what tawdry revelations about her conception came up (and I thought it was completely disgusting of the mother to leave a diary about it), he didn't have ANY change of heart, and she was still, and always would be his daughter. What a great guy.
Since it is outside my personal experience PTSD didn't even occur to me, but I think you have a very valid theory there. It would be interesting to see if that aspect was downplayed for the sake of adaption to the graphic format. It certainly would have added more depth and understanding to his character if that were the case, but would have needed many more pages to include properly. I would greatly respect an author who managed to do that subject justice in a romance novel.
And I agree with all of the above re: the FL and her father (the other doesn't qualify for the title).
In a genre that is rife with the outrageous and ridiculous, it was really nice to see a believable couple overcoming real-life problems to reach a believably real-life happy ending.
One could argue he was just a little too oblivious and she was a little too insecure and emotional, and one might be right ;), but honestly, it never reached the level of outrageous or ridiculous, and that is what made it real.
In fact, being insecure about their bodies after having children is a reality for many women, we live jn a society that put a lot of pressure on women's bodies, that we must look perfect!!!
Imagine feeling like that and seeing a perfect looking woman near your husband, it is horrible. It is true she should have talked with him about her insecurities, sadly, her husband is totally oblivious about it, but as I learn in my 40 years of life, men are oblivious if you don't tell them exactly what is happening, even thought not all men, many men are better undretanding white and black and not grays, while we women tent to communicate in grays!!!
Agreed, and yes. I can tell you after three children I look nothing like I did when I got married. My husband wishes there were less of me now, and it’s not that I don’t want to look better, but the older I get the harder it is and I despair of regaining even a semblance of my former figure. Thankfully, I my husband is not as oblivious as our hero :).
Not just the guy, but the manga as a whole. I mean, seriously! SPOILER ALERT: Rather than get a second opinion, he'll divorce his wife (you know, there are treatment clinics for that! Did you EVEN look into one?). Rather than admit his infertility and consider options WITH his wife (you don't think adoption could be an option?), he comes up with the most stupid, convoluted plan to hurt her as much as possible and drive her away. Rather than trust his wife, come clean and ask for a DNA test, he'll just assume (without any other proof) the wife he's trying to hurt and drive away cheated and disown his son. THEN, when he actually realizes just how STUPID he was, does he go and apologize and beg forgiveness on his knees, contritely and humbly acknowledging how wrong he was and how much he hurt her? Heavens forbid that he should be so considerate of her feelings!
No. Instead he comes up with ANOTHER stupid, convoluted plan to force her into a corner and make her submit to his overbearing arrogance (with the same secretary in tow - I don't care if YOU know she's just a secretary. You used her in your 'drive her away' sham and now you are trying to reconcile. Leave the trigger behind!) by putting the livelihoods her friends and hundreds of others on her back. Yeah, man. Way to make her feel loved and cherished. And her own livelihood - the art gallery she built from scratch? Sorry. Don't give a d@#% if you have events planned, payroll to figure, schedules to make, artists to meet and contract with, we're leaving tomorrow. Deal with it. And then... and then he has the gall to be hurt by her distrust and anger?!? ARGH!
Oh, sure. So what if he actually did apologize? His explanation and his apologies came much too late and were wholly insufficient to the amount of hurt and grief his stupid one-sided pity party caused her to start with and in no way justified the callous, loveless manipulations he put her through to force her back. The only good thing about this story was her love and devotion, as usual, and he didn't deserve it!
Drag his trifling ass! he saw she was young and manipulated her,
she's was groomed by a man 12 years her senior who couldn't keep his dick inside his pants for a literal woman child.
What does a 19 year old know and what do these people think being gullibly stupid is interchangeable with someone being young and innocent?
Yes! Yes! And the fudge yesss!
Only certain scenes of the art being beautiful made it even the least, tiniest bit bearable.
The most stupid and frustrating plot ever!
Agreed! It's sad when the only thing you can recommend I'd the art.
Sorry, I have to agree with Abbadon about the art, "Sparkles...Yuck!" Also, this artist's males have heads that look like a splitting wedge with lips.
LOL - This is one of my least favorite artists, but I'll still recommend the art over the story in this particular case.
I'm not sure which I liked better, the story or the author's note- lol. 'Dad was the hero of a Harlequin novel? No way!' - lol
If you want to learn more about what’s going on in China now (not necessarily related to this story, but China and the CCP in general) I would recommend a YouTube show called China Uncensored. They are affecting the world in so many ways. COVID 19’s spread is also their doing, indirectly if not directly.
Ah. The existing version was replaced with a new one entitled "prologue". Does that mean somebodies have 'restarted' it and intend to update it? So hoping that's the case!
So just WHY were the brothers SOOOO dead set against her staying there in the first place?? Did I miss something here??
It threw the whole story off watching them pull these their stunts for no discernible reason... and to go to such an extreme as to cause real harm and risk prosecution... again, for no understandable reason! Left me shaking my head, thinking, "HUH?"
I have never been in that place so I can't even guess as to the kind of thoughts that go into making these sort of plans, but I wonder if he ever even stopped to consider what kind of impact his death would have on her - if things had gone as planned - when she learned he killed himself after she rejected him.
He was just plotting for an excuse, any excuse, anyone would do, but that person's own life might have been devastated too. Anyone considering these thoughts has to realize that it _WILL_ hurt others... It could even hurt strangers and impact them for the rest of their lives - I know this PERSONALLY. Please reconsider and reach out for help. There are people on the other end of suicide prevention hotlines that can help. Don't give up on yourself because there are others who aren't ready to give up on you and there IS light at the end of a tunnel even if it is just around the bend where you can't see it right now. DON'T GIVE UP! SEEK HOPE! GET HELP!
Starting with the SECOND chapter of the SIDE story, the wrong manga has been uploaded! And whoever did it, did it on more than one site!
Does anyone know where "To Hold on to Happiness, Let's Hold Hands First!" can be found properly completed?
I really wanted to like this story a lot more than I did. It was illustrated by one of my favorite artists and had believable characters dealing with believable issues (if a bit exaggerated), but the translation/text was so stilted, jerky, and plagued with omitted words and pronouns that it was hard to really sink into the story and get emotionally involved.