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Travelling Light
Travelling Light by Sandra Field released on Feb 22, 1994 is available now for purchase.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1994
About the author
Sandra Field
216 books36 followersJill MacLean was born on 1941 in England, UK. In 1950, her family moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 12, 2018
Re Travelling Light - Sandra Field must have been really wanting a spot on the Postcards From Europe series and when she did not get one, decided to do her own Postcard From Norway instead.
Truly, SF did an excellent job on the popular tourist spot travelogue of Norway. It is just that the romance is kinda tediously interesting.
(Which sounds like an oxymoron, but this h has to draw out every single bit of inner angst drama she possibly can from every interaction with the H and it got very monotonous, even tho SF moves us from one scenic view lookout to another fairly quickly and there is a TON of action, it is just kinda repetitive.)
The h in this story is 23 and Canadian. Her family is Norwegian and she has been travelling around Europe for two years. Her back story is that her parents left Norway for some unknown reason 20 years ago and they are miserable people or at least that is what the h whines a lot.
The h is the oldest and then they had four or five boys afterwards and pretty much abdicated their parenting to the h. Her mother has decided she is bedridden and her father isn't much interested in anything. So when her last brother turned 16 and moved out, the h told her parents to sort themselves out and took off to travel the world.
This h has a huge aversion to marriage and kids and permanent relationships, as all she has ever known is her parent's mutual disaster of an attempt at family life and she has already raised four for five kids on her own with raising her brothers.
When the h gets to Oslo, she is staying at her male cousin's apartment, even tho she hasn't actually met him yet. As the h wanders around having pølser, (Norwegian sausage dogs,) and looking at the street life of Oslo, she gets attacked by two guys who want to steal her limited funds.
The h actually fights them off and gets away. Right into the arms of the H, who is immediately convinced that the h is the only woman for him in the world and we can let the stalkery stalkerific chase begin.
The h doesn't want to be stalked however. Even tho SF assures us that the Lurve Mojo Force Treacherous Body Syndrome effect is totally working. The h insists that she who travels best, travels light, with no excess baggage. But since the H is determined and even drags the h off to dinner with his witchy grandmother, who wants him to marry the rich and biddable neighbor instead of the trampy golddigger that she thinks the h is.
The h keeps telling the H she isn't interested, but the TBS keeps her meeting with him at all the major Oslo attractions. Like the Munch museum, where the h compares her inner self to Munch's Madonna, the Vigeland Park where there are giant nude people sculptures all striving in a very humanistic way and the h has a mental meltdown about her messed up non-childhood
Until we get all the way to Preikestolen, or Pulpit rock, where the H finally chases her down after she runs off again, (and this time she throws the keys to his Jaguar away, which was really tacky of her.) After having another meltdown moment of inner angst drama at the very top of the mountain edge, (which is a terrible place to do that really,) the h agrees to travel around Norway with the H and eventually become his lover.
When we get to Ulvik and it's reknowned Hardangerfjord hot springs that keep the orchards lovely, we find out the H has some serious baggage of his own. The H, who has had a variety of international aid/engineering jobs, as well as being his wealthy grandma's heir, was married. He was on the national ski team and his wife was desperately terrified he would be injured or killed and so she cried all over the H a lot.
The H eventually agreed to quit after his wife gave birth to their daughter. At his last ski event, there was a huge avalanche that hit the spectators and both his wife and daughter died. The H's father in law lives in Ulvik and when he and the H meet, it is clear that both the H and the father in law blame the H for continuing to ski when his wife was so adamantly against it and so caused her and the baby daughter's death.
The h inadvertently overhears the exchange and the H finally explains that he does feel guilty, but his wife was afraid of everything and he couldn't be himself with her - only he found out too late, and they were married with a baby, and her fears eventually eroded their relationship.
The H is determined not to let another's fears control his life and he thinks the h has freed him from his past torment when they finally get around to the big lurve purple passion moment. Then the h takes the H along to meet her never-before-met-grandfather after she almost dies when she wrecks her little junker car on a peak road in the mountains and the H rescues her again.
The grandfather and the h's male cousin are very keen to welcome the H and h to the grandfather's farm, we also find out that the reason the h's parents fled Norway all those years ago was that the h's father had embezzled funds from the local farmer's co-op. The h starts to understand why her mother likes to be ill all the time.
After another round with violent people, this time horse attackers, the h and H throw rocks at them and the h almost gets beaten up, until the H saves the day with his manly fists of fury. The H asks the h to marry him when he sees the h holding one of the cousin's babies. The h has been regularly sleeping with the H at this point and yet she still has a hissy fit and refuses to even consider marriage or children cause she is too afraid it will all go pear shaped.
The H gets furious that his chosen lurve club holder won't run off and marry him after knowing her for three and a half weeks, so he accuses her of ruining his life with her cowardly fears and tells her he is leaving the country and he is done chasing her.
So the H leaves, he has a job interview with the United Nations. The h hangs out with her grampa and cousins, but she is feeling really bad and has huge mopey moments. She has to have intense conversations with EVERYONE about the definition of love and finally her really cool cousin Harald tells her to fish or cut bait.
The h goes to see the H's formidable witch grandmother to find out where the H is and the grandmother, after some serious verbal debating and yet another definition of love, tells the h that the H is in New York City.
So it is off to NYC we go, were the H has already checked out of his hotel to go hang in the Adirondacks for his job interview. Then we take the bus to the Adirondacks, where the h runs off again after finding out the H is out with his interview hosts and their sister.
The h is almost completely broke by this time, so she camps out nearby under some trees with no regards to private property laws and the H and a dog find her later that night. The h declares she loves the H and wants to marry him and get preggers and the H declares he loves her back and he will take the UN job and they will travel light in heart together for a Thank-HPlandia-Divinities-We-Finally-Made-It-To-The-End HEA.
The travelogue is really excellent and I strongly recommend the googles to look at pictures of the places the H and h visit. Norway is stunning in it's beauty and I can't enthuse enough. (Tho with all the random attacks in the story, it seems a little violent and probably SF was being a bit misleading, I didn't see any warnings or reports of 1994 attacks on Norwegian tourists.)
Unfortunately, the romance is too drawn out and the h is too stubbornly intransigent, (until she isn't,) to really work tho. I did not understand the lighting fast switch of "I am never marrying and don't want kids" to " I can't wait to hitch up and have your babies."
Not that people can't change their minds about things. But she had been regularly loving it up with the H after her near death experience wrecking her car and that did not bring about a marriage and kids gestalt enlightenment. Plus, SF did not show us enough connection between the two of them to really make me believe that the H going off to live his own life was a big enough motivator for the h to want to do a complete reversal of her life.
So for the travelogue and the scenic views -this book gets five stars, the romance is a two and overall that means it is a three, with a standard day at the HP office disclaimer for this HPlandia outing.
Truly, SF did an excellent job on the popular tourist spot travelogue of Norway. It is just that the romance is kinda tediously interesting.
(Which sounds like an oxymoron, but this h has to draw out every single bit of inner angst drama she possibly can from every interaction with the H and it got very monotonous, even tho SF moves us from one scenic view lookout to another fairly quickly and there is a TON of action, it is just kinda repetitive.)
The h in this story is 23 and Canadian. Her family is Norwegian and she has been travelling around Europe for two years. Her back story is that her parents left Norway for some unknown reason 20 years ago and they are miserable people or at least that is what the h whines a lot.
The h is the oldest and then they had four or five boys afterwards and pretty much abdicated their parenting to the h. Her mother has decided she is bedridden and her father isn't much interested in anything. So when her last brother turned 16 and moved out, the h told her parents to sort themselves out and took off to travel the world.
This h has a huge aversion to marriage and kids and permanent relationships, as all she has ever known is her parent's mutual disaster of an attempt at family life and she has already raised four for five kids on her own with raising her brothers.
When the h gets to Oslo, she is staying at her male cousin's apartment, even tho she hasn't actually met him yet. As the h wanders around having pølser, (Norwegian sausage dogs,) and looking at the street life of Oslo, she gets attacked by two guys who want to steal her limited funds.
The h actually fights them off and gets away. Right into the arms of the H, who is immediately convinced that the h is the only woman for him in the world and we can let the stalkery stalkerific chase begin.
The h doesn't want to be stalked however. Even tho SF assures us that the Lurve Mojo Force Treacherous Body Syndrome effect is totally working. The h insists that she who travels best, travels light, with no excess baggage. But since the H is determined and even drags the h off to dinner with his witchy grandmother, who wants him to marry the rich and biddable neighbor instead of the trampy golddigger that she thinks the h is.
The h keeps telling the H she isn't interested, but the TBS keeps her meeting with him at all the major Oslo attractions. Like the Munch museum, where the h compares her inner self to Munch's Madonna, the Vigeland Park where there are giant nude people sculptures all striving in a very humanistic way and the h has a mental meltdown about her messed up non-childhood
Until we get all the way to Preikestolen, or Pulpit rock, where the H finally chases her down after she runs off again, (and this time she throws the keys to his Jaguar away, which was really tacky of her.) After having another meltdown moment of inner angst drama at the very top of the mountain edge, (which is a terrible place to do that really,) the h agrees to travel around Norway with the H and eventually become his lover.
When we get to Ulvik and it's reknowned Hardangerfjord hot springs that keep the orchards lovely, we find out the H has some serious baggage of his own. The H, who has had a variety of international aid/engineering jobs, as well as being his wealthy grandma's heir, was married. He was on the national ski team and his wife was desperately terrified he would be injured or killed and so she cried all over the H a lot.
The H eventually agreed to quit after his wife gave birth to their daughter. At his last ski event, there was a huge avalanche that hit the spectators and both his wife and daughter died. The H's father in law lives in Ulvik and when he and the H meet, it is clear that both the H and the father in law blame the H for continuing to ski when his wife was so adamantly against it and so caused her and the baby daughter's death.
The h inadvertently overhears the exchange and the H finally explains that he does feel guilty, but his wife was afraid of everything and he couldn't be himself with her - only he found out too late, and they were married with a baby, and her fears eventually eroded their relationship.
The H is determined not to let another's fears control his life and he thinks the h has freed him from his past torment when they finally get around to the big lurve purple passion moment. Then the h takes the H along to meet her never-before-met-grandfather after she almost dies when she wrecks her little junker car on a peak road in the mountains and the H rescues her again.
The grandfather and the h's male cousin are very keen to welcome the H and h to the grandfather's farm, we also find out that the reason the h's parents fled Norway all those years ago was that the h's father had embezzled funds from the local farmer's co-op. The h starts to understand why her mother likes to be ill all the time.
After another round with violent people, this time horse attackers, the h and H throw rocks at them and the h almost gets beaten up, until the H saves the day with his manly fists of fury. The H asks the h to marry him when he sees the h holding one of the cousin's babies. The h has been regularly sleeping with the H at this point and yet she still has a hissy fit and refuses to even consider marriage or children cause she is too afraid it will all go pear shaped.
The H gets furious that his chosen lurve club holder won't run off and marry him after knowing her for three and a half weeks, so he accuses her of ruining his life with her cowardly fears and tells her he is leaving the country and he is done chasing her.
So the H leaves, he has a job interview with the United Nations. The h hangs out with her grampa and cousins, but she is feeling really bad and has huge mopey moments. She has to have intense conversations with EVERYONE about the definition of love and finally her really cool cousin Harald tells her to fish or cut bait.
The h goes to see the H's formidable witch grandmother to find out where the H is and the grandmother, after some serious verbal debating and yet another definition of love, tells the h that the H is in New York City.
So it is off to NYC we go, were the H has already checked out of his hotel to go hang in the Adirondacks for his job interview. Then we take the bus to the Adirondacks, where the h runs off again after finding out the H is out with his interview hosts and their sister.
The h is almost completely broke by this time, so she camps out nearby under some trees with no regards to private property laws and the H and a dog find her later that night. The h declares she loves the H and wants to marry him and get preggers and the H declares he loves her back and he will take the UN job and they will travel light in heart together for a Thank-HPlandia-Divinities-We-Finally-Made-It-To-The-End HEA.
The travelogue is really excellent and I strongly recommend the googles to look at pictures of the places the H and h visit. Norway is stunning in it's beauty and I can't enthuse enough. (Tho with all the random attacks in the story, it seems a little violent and probably SF was being a bit misleading, I didn't see any warnings or reports of 1994 attacks on Norwegian tourists.)
Unfortunately, the romance is too drawn out and the h is too stubbornly intransigent, (until she isn't,) to really work tho. I did not understand the lighting fast switch of "I am never marrying and don't want kids" to " I can't wait to hitch up and have your babies."
Not that people can't change their minds about things. But she had been regularly loving it up with the H after her near death experience wrecking her car and that did not bring about a marriage and kids gestalt enlightenment. Plus, SF did not show us enough connection between the two of them to really make me believe that the H going off to live his own life was a big enough motivator for the h to want to do a complete reversal of her life.
So for the travelogue and the scenic views -this book gets five stars, the romance is a two and overall that means it is a three, with a standard day at the HP office disclaimer for this HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2009
I really liked certain aspects of this book; I disliked others. I enjoyed how the book tried to get at the true nature of love, and create two flawed and scarred characters who find healing and wholeness in each other. but it did drag that out a lot, and often belabored the point.
the Norwegian setting was unique for a novel, and rather interesting. I wish the author had taken enough time and skill to completely fulfill the promise of the book. still, not a bad book.
the Norwegian setting was unique for a novel, and rather interesting. I wish the author had taken enough time and skill to completely fulfill the promise of the book. still, not a bad book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews