by Carly Phillips, Donna Hill, Jill ShalvisPublisher: Harlequin
Release Date: April 1, 2011
Source: sent by publisher
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Summary from goodreads.com:
Each and every one of us
has the ability to effect change—to make our world a better place. The
dedicated women selected as this year's recipients of Harlequin's More
Than Words award have changed lives, one good deed at a time. To
celebrate their accomplishments, some of our bestselling authors have
honored the winners by writing stories inspired by these real-life heroines.We hope More Than Words inspires you to get in touch with the real-life heroine living inside of you.
In Carly Phillips's Compassion Can't Wait,
two high school sweet hearts are reunited years later, as if by fate,
and discover that if you believe in yourself and each other, anything is
possible.
Donna Hill's Someplace Like Home tells the
story of how one woman's dream becomes reality, as three special people
learn that it's never too late to form a loving family.
In Jill Shalvis's What the Heart Wants, an honorable man must learn to forgive himself to regain the trust of the ded icated teacher who is the love of his life.
My Review:
First of all, I love the idea of this book-stories about real life charitable organizations. Honestly, I really enjoyed reading the pages preceeding each story that told about the real life heroines who started up each charity, including how and why, more than the actual short stories.
Even though I liked reading the true inspiration blurbs, I thought the actual romance stories were slow and bland. I am a fan of short stories, so it wasn't the format that bothered me. I just felt like the stories were quickly written with hollow characters and not a lot of feeling.
I wasn't feeling any of the romance in the stories, so maybe if the authors had focused more on telling the other parts of the stories instead of the romances, it could have been a better book. The romances seemed forced and didn't seem to really tie together with the charities enough.
Main Characters: 3/5
Supporting Characters: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Romance: 3/5
Uniqueness: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Bottom Line: The book definitely has a great cause and I appreciated learning about the different charities. However I wasn't left with the warm, fuzzy feeling that I was expecting from this book.