To Love and Be Loved

Product Information

We love altruistically. Religions have been structured around the concept of altruistic love. The Abrahamic religions all command us to “love thy neighbor as thyself." Through meditation and self-love, Buddhists are able to find their connection to and thus love for all living creatures.

I really loved this story of love and hope amongst heartbreaking events. It is truly a wonderful story and I know you will enjoy it as much as I did. I recommend this book. It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again. And she is forced to relook at the questions that she has been avoiding for all those years.

What worked for me: I am an unapologetic angst whore and there's a fairly constant stream of angst, largely coming from our h who seems to think that all anybody thinks or talks about is The Jilting. That assumption is supported to some degree by others in the story, but surely other awful events occasionally steal their focus?! Incidentally, that's also what *didn't* work for me because enough already. Shitty, horrible things happen and this was indeed one of them, but put on those big girl panties and move along. That level of self(h)-generated angst felt very YA/NA, which I have recently discovered I really just cannot stomach any longer. Another aspect that worked for me was the h's growth. Our delicate hothouse flower of an h does indeed grow and mature and her efforts are rewarded in the end. I love a good romance. You get just that with Prowse books. You have to read this one to find out if happiness is found. The best characters and the story line that you won't soon forget.

Merrin Kellow is young and vibrant. Merrin is marrying her person. The one that completes her. The one that makes her happy. The one that she loves, she is looking forward to marrying Digby Mortimer. Their families have a long history in their costal town town in Cornwall. She is the daughter of fisherman and Digby lives in the big house. In their community everyone knows everyone and it is the wedding of the year until it becomes something different. It changes everything for Merrin that she leaves the town she loves, the people she loves to rebuild all that she has lost.This is my second book by the author which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I took my own sweet time because I wasn't ready to let go of the characters and their memories too soon. We love family. Sometimes. Some family members more than others. And family of choice as well as family by blood or legal ties. We can learn to love those with whom we share our daily lives because of our sheer exposure to each other’s basic existence. Sometimes an author plops you down in an idyllic setting and surrounds you with a great cast of characters and it just feels right. In 𝐓𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 there isn’t a lot of action or steamy scenes, but once you meet Merrin and the Kellow family, you won’t want to leave the seaside village of Port Charles.

The main setting is Port Charles in Cornwall. In my mind I kept seeing Port Wen from Doc Martin and it really did sound idyllic. I can certainly understand why Merrin missed it so much. each other and laughed and also at times cried with them. I felt sad that Merrin spent so long away from home but it took coming home to find some of the answers she was looking for and the courage and strength to move on. Until the one thing she never expected to happen, happens. Filled with humiliation, Merrin flees her beloved hometown to forget her sorrows, but with a huge sense of regret at leaving her family behind. About the book: “In this life-affirming tale from bestselling author Amanda Prowse, one woman built a new life to escape her humiliation. Now, can she put the shame behind her and finally find happiness?” Merrin believed she had found her happily-ever-after in Digby, that is, until he abandoned her on their wedding day.She meets Miguel and he is clearly besotted with her, but Merrin doesn’t feel completely the same. She cares for him but it isn’t love. The jilting is, quite simply, awful. She gets all spiffed up, takes a magical horse carriage ride to the church, where the vicar tells her Digby (! that's right - that's his name) isn't showing up. So, the groom let her get ready for the wedding - PAY for the wedding trappings, finery, and celebration, and then just didn't show up. When she confronted him later that day, his inadequate explanation hinted at his mother's meddling and highlights his immaturity and unsuitability to assume the mantle of marriage. Our devastated h is accosted by village people who simultaneously pity and chastise her for daring to think she'd be "living in the big house". The h, being very young, super sensitive, and self-conscious, knows she has to leg it out of there because she simply cannot stand to be the object of the town's attention, gossip, and pity. I was hooked on the story of Merrin from the moment I started reading. She was born and has lived in the same Cornish Fishing village of Port Charles, her whole life, and intends to spend the rest of it, there, too. Much of the remainder of the book is spent with our h living in a city 3 hours away, working at a castle-cum-luxury hotel, missing her Cornish home terribly, but continuing to stay away because of the gossip and the guilt of putting her family through the fiasco that was(n't) her wedding. She misses her Gran's funeral because she just *can't* stomach the possibility of seeing Digby or his mother. Insert eyeroll. I find the character of Merrin quite daring and brave as opposed to what other characters feel about her when the story started.