Did you see Mark's illness coming?
Would you have ever guessed that he was only 6 blocks away from Abby the entire time?
What did you think about the twist in the story?
Would it have been as strong of a story if he really had been traveling the world like he Tweeted?
What are your thoughts?
8 comments:
I tend to get myself lost in a story as it unfolds as opposed to trying to "see" what's coming. So I'm usually as surprised as the characters when the arc or climax of a story happens. Naive of me I know..LOL...So I really didn't see his illness coming at all or that he was so close all that time.At first I was kind of mad, because I really wanted this to be a happy ever after kind of romance, and I knew then it wasn't going to be. But I really liked the way the story unfolded and ended anyway.
I did NOT see that coming at all! Like Amy, I try not to think too far forward in the book.
I have to tell you a story, while we were still watching new episodes of LOST, I had this amazing dream about the show that really tied in the story lines really well. Then, when the next week's episode didn't live up to my dream I was super disappointed! LOL! So, I try not to think too much into books.
I think the twist was needed. It was so quaint without it. But the twist made it gut wrenching and so incredibly romantic. Much more romantic than if she had just shown up in Europe because that's fairytale love and this was real raw love. The love you fall into even though you didn't want to. Love that!
I have a real-life friend who has the same disease that Mark suffers from in the book, so this kind of hit close to home for me. My friend is pretty limited with what she can do right now since she's so sick, so she spends a lot of time watching TV and surfing the Internet, and I know from her Facebook that she really doesn't want to talk or think about her illness. From that perspective, I totally understand Mark preferring to imagine himself gallivanting all over Europe and seeing all the things he wished he'd seen before he got sick again, rather than dwelling on the reality of being stuck in the hospital and all the terrible things he had to go through.
I did have a thought when he Tweeted each location though that he was on a really crazy travel itinerary if he was going from France to Italy and then backtracking to Ireland...just seemed like a geographically weird order to visit things, lol!
I think I knew that there had to be a twist~and I'm glad there was! I like solving the puzzle as I go, and things just seemed out of kilter. As Christy said, his itinerary didn't make any sense. And when he didn't want her phone number, I knew that his "cover" was a lie~I just didn't quite know what the truth was. And even though he was only six blocks away, I am sure he felt like he was worlds away because of his illness. I am so glad she decided to bridge the divide and find him! For me, that was a much better resolution than her trip to Ireland would have been.
I wasn't paying that close attention to the order of his itinerary, so I never saw it coming. I was just along for the ride, enjoying the scenery, so to speak, without doing any in depth analysis. I guess there was some bit of me that knew there was *something* not quite kosher, but I never would have guessed what it was. I'm glad he was as close as he was, or Abby might not have found him in time. I think that had he been actually traveling, it would have been a sweet story, but a little too neat and tidy, and probably would have been a trifle boring in the end.
I defintely did NOT see his illness coming! I almost threw my book down and didnt want to continue LOL.
I love a good twist in a story as long as it ends well.
Im not so sure the book would have been as strong or good if he really was travelling the world.
Kristy xo
I had known that something was wrong with what he was telling her ( I had seen a spoiler somewhere along the way that he wasn't what he presented himself to be) but was TOTALLY shocked when he had cancer. For me, this was the emotional tidbit that made this a 5-star book.
I felt like something was coming... but I wasn't sure just what. So, yes, I was surprised that he had cancer and it was serious enough for him to be hospitalized.
It made me mad that he was only 6 blocks from her the whole time and had been lying about his location. I would have been going crazy (as she was) to get to him and figure out where he was at before it was too late.
The twist did make the story much more interesting.
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