Judith, I Love

Reading another Judith McNaught book again was like catching up with an old friend. After years and years of no communication, you astonishingly find yourself feeling the familiarity with each other. Although in a relatively another way as principles and perceptions have changed over the years, but the warmth to the heart is still there.

I first got acquainted with Judith McNaught's romance novels way back in my senior highschool days. I started out with "Perfect" and true enough, I found it the perfect book to start my admiration for Judith McNaught's writing. As an Asian girl brought up in a relatively conservative way, I was amazed to find a Western story with a conservative character of the leading lady in a modern setting, so it was easy for me to get the relation even if I was only in my teens and the character was in her late 20's. So I read another book after it, wondering if it would be as good as the first one I've read. And true enough, it was. Paradise captured my heart just like Perfect, and this time, it sparked something else: it awakened up the corporate girl in me. There was a scene there where I even really cried because I felt so much the strong emotion of the leading lady when she was trying to prove herself to her father. After reading this book, I realized I would like to someday become a CEO of my own company, and back then as an idealistic innocent girl, I believed that I could be both a power corporate woman and a power wife+mom, of course now I know better. The third book I read was Tender Triumph, which also had a strong story but not as relating to me as the first two I've read, but I still liked it.

All those three books had a setting of the 20th century so I thought Judith McNaught's novels were about modern day love stories. And so I was quite surprised when I started to read Whitney, My Love last week. The setting was 19th century. I was hoping to read another modern day love story, so I could relate, so I was hesitant at first to read it since I might not be able to relate. But amazingly, after finishing the book, I realized I still was able to relate to it because Judith McNaught's signature characters having strong personalities were still there. I don't know if I would've liked it if I read this book first 10 years ago though, because I might have had difficulty reading it back then, because there were a lot of British and French words and terminologies that were used, those which I wouldn't have understood quite clearly have I not been exposed to the European culture, having worked with British and French people. Anyway, I was also surprised to learn that Whitney, My Love was Judith McNaught's first romance novel and this gave way to the bloom of her career. This book also brought about her other novels, characters of which were introduced from this novel. I also learned that the book I read was the republished version, with some modification to be able to be like a prologue to the other novels that stemmed from it. So that explainedto me why there was a bit of awkwardness on how it went in the last couple of chapters. I think the original version would have be better. But anyhow, the story was great, how it was written was great. It was like a mature fairytale due to its touch on sensuality.

It worked quite well indeed, for I felt that the ice that has covered the heart, is now beginning to thaw...

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~Thanks to Ays for lending me the book

~Thanks to Sam's Letters to Jennifer for a good preparatory reading, hehe :)

~Thanks to Simonsays.com for the pictures above