Books After Thoughts - Dream Country & Silver Bells (Luanne Rice)

Read 2 novels recently, both by Luanne Rice. She's very good at writing heartwarming and touching stories about families, friends and lovers. Several of her books have touched me to tears. The most touching one will be Cloud Nine. I read it more than a year ago, but I recall there is a handicapped girl in the story. It is a beautiful story. Maybe one day, I will travel to the places she mentioned in her books. Those are real places that exist and she travels there to experience the place.

The most 2 recent ones I read are (1) Dream Country and (2) Silver Bells. I prefer Dream Country more. Here's my thoughts and feelings about both novels..

"Love, alone, is not enough"... Luanne illustrated this fact when Ben abandoned Sage on their journey west to Wyoming. Ben loved school and cannot convince himself to give up college and his potential future for Sage and his unborn baby. He was the one who insisted to go with Sage to find her Dad but he started to regret his decision as they hide inside the freight train. He loved Sage deeply, but sadly love is not enough for him to give up his existing life. The most saddening part was that Sage could sense that although Ben is in the same freight train as her, he feels so far away. She could sense the distance between both of them increasing. At the point when they were almost discovered, Sage let Ben go. She understands what Ben wants and what she wants. Ben want to lead a normal teenager/student life while she wants to reunite with her father. So she let Ben go and asked Ben to help her fulfil her wish by luring the police away so that she could cycle away into the West. Ben did so and he was brought back home while Sage continued on her journey west with her unborn baby on her bike. It takes a strong girl to make that decision and to make that journey. Her journey reunited her family. It brought back her twin brother who had been missing for 13 years.

Another amazing thing illustrated by this story was the traits which close family shares. Although her brother went missing 13 years ago and grew up in a completely different environment, he inherited his mother genes & talents in drawings. His drawings was one of the things that helped Sage recognise this brother. Such common traits/talents that runs in a family is amazing. Even in different environment, some things don't change. Those traits are what identifies a family. In real life, will common traits withstand the different environment & prevail? I believe some traits will. Jage wasn't exactly like Sage or Daisy or James. He had his own weird temperament and thinkings. He had his own protection armour given his tough upgrowing. All these aside, his ability to create live pieces with a pen/pencil remains in him.

I had just finished reading Silver Bells a few hours ago. Silver Bells was not as good as Dream Country. It did not tugged at my heartstring as much as Dream Country. Probably what is beautiful about Silver Bells is not the the family love nor the love between Christy and Catherine. I felt that it was the settings that is beautiful. It is Christmas & snowing. This is Chelsea, New York. Farmers from many faraway lands brought Christmas Trees which they had grown to sell to New Yorkers. Imagine it is snowing and christmas trees are placed around on the street, waiting to be brought home. The white snows falling onto the pines. That alone is the perfect decoration for the trees. No need for lights nor stars. No need for Santa. The weather, the snow and the green pines. And also the part about sledding at the Central Park. Luanne describes it so vividly. It was snowing heavily and the streets are desserted. You might think that everyone is at home, snugging next to the fire place. But SURPRISE! everyone is down at the park to enjoy the thick snow. I guess I love the setting because I lived in place whereby there is no snow and no real christmas trees. It has always been a wish for me to visit a snowy place during xmas. Thus far, the place I had been to that give me this snowy, christmas feeling is Whistler. It is such a fairy tale town. If I were ever going to write a novel, it might be based in Whistler. And definitely, Green Lake will be part of the story..

Hope I will be able to do visit Whistler or another snowy place during Xmas soon, in a few years' time. And hope Mother Nature will be well then.

To conclude, Dream Country is a much nicer novel than Silver Bells. Dream Country had the extra mystery & thrilling element on top of the beautiful love stories. (I love mystery and thriller!)