2frangipani2's review
4.0
In full disclosure this was on audiobook and I did not like the tone or voice of the narrator. So, I almost gave it three stars, because it took away from the story.
The story was a little cliche in some areas and the main character was not simpatico to me. BUT, the story really is something to read and think about. We all have spent time wondering about "what ifs" and at times felt down about where life has lead you. I needed to read this because I sometimes am embarrassed by my choices and where I am now in life. This makes me realize that yes this could have been how it was intended all along and that I was supposed to follow this path. Bumps and all...
The story was a little cliche in some areas and the main character was not simpatico to me. BUT, the story really is something to read and think about. We all have spent time wondering about "what ifs" and at times felt down about where life has lead you. I needed to read this because I sometimes am embarrassed by my choices and where I am now in life. This makes me realize that yes this could have been how it was intended all along and that I was supposed to follow this path. Bumps and all...
ashleewardy's review
5.0
I really REALLY liked this book! It was so HEARTWARMING! The main characters in the book were so relatable, and you truly felt the heartache on each page. I do wish the epilogue shared more the the ending relationship (won't give any spoilers), but it was still a beautiful book! I definitely recommend!
inneedofbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Goed verhaal, de schrijfster heeft haar huiswerk goed gedaan voordat ze begon over pleegzorg en doofheid te schrijven.
Wat mij wel stoort is dat de vertaler "hard of hearing" (HoH) heeft vertaald naar hardhorend terwijl HoH eigenlijk een Engelse term is voor slechthorend. Het nam de plezier van het verhaal een klein beetje weg vanwege die term die onjuist is benoemd. Dat vind ik persoonlijk wel jammer.
Wat ook jammer is, is dat ze de Cochlear Implantaat (CI) neerzet als een "wondermiddel" en niet als een hulpmiddel. Dat je een CI hebt, betekent niet gelijk dat je gelijk goed kan horen en/of daardoor mee kan praten. De stembanden staan los van het gehoor. Sommige dove kinderen hebben wel een CI maar hebben moeite met het praten/verstaanbaar maken. Daarnaast lijkt het net alsof Kate verwacht (en de lezer laat denken) dat het kind perfect kan liplezen/spraakafzien terwijl in het Engels maar 30% leesbaar (in het Nederlands 50%) is vanaf de mond. De rest is gokken en invullen. Dit percentage kan lager of hoger liggen afhankelijk van de lichtinval, hoe goed iemand kan liplezen en hoe iemand staat (heeft hij/zij een hand voor de mond, kijkt hij/zij persoon aan of is het van de zijkant etc) De scènes waarin het donker is en Kate praat en een van de kinderen waarmee ze werkt antwoordt is hierdoor niet realistisch. Een kind met een CI heeft altijd mondbeeld nodig en als het donker is hoort ie wel wat maar verstaat ie het niet.
Ik weet trouwens niet hoeveel tijd er in het boek verstrijkt (een aantal maanden?) maar je kunt niet in zo'n korte tijd vloeiend gebaren. Daarvoor heb je sowieso jaren voor nodig om dat voor elkaar te krijgen. Zeker als je maar 2x in de week even gebaart en verder geen mensen om je heen hebt die ook gebarentaal kunnen. Het zelf kunnen gebaren en het aflezen van iemand anders zijn 2 verschillende dingen die de schrijfster denk ik niet wist.
Also, Dan is an asshole.
Wat mij wel stoort is dat de vertaler "hard of hearing" (HoH) heeft vertaald naar hardhorend terwijl HoH eigenlijk een Engelse term is voor slechthorend. Het nam de plezier van het verhaal een klein beetje weg vanwege die term die onjuist is benoemd. Dat vind ik persoonlijk wel jammer.
Wat ook jammer is, is dat ze de Cochlear Implantaat (CI) neerzet als een "wondermiddel" en niet als een hulpmiddel. Dat je een CI hebt, betekent niet gelijk dat je gelijk goed kan horen en/of daardoor mee kan praten. De stembanden staan los van het gehoor. Sommige dove kinderen hebben wel een CI maar hebben moeite met het praten/verstaanbaar maken. Daarnaast lijkt het net alsof Kate verwacht (en de lezer laat denken) dat het kind perfect kan liplezen/spraakafzien terwijl in het Engels maar 30% leesbaar (in het Nederlands 50%) is vanaf de mond. De rest is gokken en invullen. Dit percentage kan lager of hoger liggen afhankelijk van de lichtinval, hoe goed iemand kan liplezen en hoe iemand staat (heeft hij/zij een hand voor de mond, kijkt hij/zij persoon aan of is het van de zijkant etc) De scènes waarin het donker is en Kate praat en een van de kinderen waarmee ze werkt antwoordt is hierdoor niet realistisch. Een kind met een CI heeft altijd mondbeeld nodig en als het donker is hoort ie wel wat maar verstaat ie het niet.
Ik weet trouwens niet hoeveel tijd er in het boek verstrijkt (een aantal maanden?) maar je kunt niet in zo'n korte tijd vloeiend gebaren. Daarvoor heb je sowieso jaren voor nodig om dat voor elkaar te krijgen. Zeker als je maar 2x in de week even gebaart en verder geen mensen om je heen hebt die ook gebarentaal kunnen. Het zelf kunnen gebaren en het aflezen van iemand anders zijn 2 verschillende dingen die de schrijfster denk ik niet wist.
Also, Dan is an asshole.
sandlynn's review
5.0
Kristin Harmel’s The Life Intended was published in 2015, but this is the first time I’ve ever read this author.
This book — like two others I’ve recently read — centers on a woman who suffers a tragic loss and that loss is later (or even beforehand) picked up upon by her subconscious, leading to predictive dreams. (This plot line must be my catnip, because I just ate up all three of the books with these similar premises.) In The Life Intended, Kate, a New Yorker, met and married the love of her life in her late twenties. Within about a year of her marriage, her husband Patrick is killed in a car accident, devastating Kate. (This is not a spoiler since the plot point is literally on the back cover.) In any event, in the following 12 years, Kate hasn’t focused much on love, but she has taken her deceased husband’s advice and returned to school to become a music therapist. As the reader enters Kate’s life, she is now 40 years old, a successful music therapist — working mostly with children — and has met a new love who, to the delight of her friends and family, she’s preparing to marry. Just as she’s planning her wedding to Dan, Kate begins to have very vivid, life-like dreams where she is still married to Patrick. Both Patrick and she are 12 years older and have a pre-teen daughter named Hannah who is hard of hearing.
Oddly enough, in her non-dream life, Kate had just discovered that she can no longer have children. When she tells this to Dan he is perfectly fine with it, not expecting or wanting to have children at all. However, Kate, now knowing she can’t possibly have children, especially at her age is devastated — feeling like something else has been taken from her. As Kate continues having these strange dreams of an alternate life with Patrick and Hannah, she begins to feel estranged from Dan. And, acting upon some of the “facts” of her dream life, Kate decides to learn sign language and begin working with children who are hard of hearing under the supervision of a counselor who works with deaf children in the foster system and who teaches sign language. As the story progresses, Kate is torn in three ways — although still living with Dan and planning a wedding, she’s becoming increasingly unhappy with that relationship. She’s finding herself wishing and hoping that she can actually live in her alternate dream world even though she knows that’s impossible, and, to make things even more complicated, she’s finding herself growing interested in Andrew, the counselor and sign-language teacher, as well as a troubled pre-teen girl who he has asked her to work with while she awaits a potential reunion with her drug addicted mother.
I can’t lie. I could tell early on where this story might be heading. There’s a nugget of information relayed early in the story that tips off the reader, but since there are a couple of plot lines that are tricky and hit a dead end for our character, I began to wonder if I was wrong. However, no! I was not. Part of me was a little disappointed that things ended up almost exactly as I thought they might, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the ride. There’s something about loss, and dreams, and second chances that is so appealing. A bit of the magical or inexplicable in life, leading to happiness. I also loved most of the characters — other than Dan who understandably is upset and angry over his fate. The reader is set up not to like him, but that’s obviously unfair to him. Kate does become single-minded about what she’s feeling and dreaming about that upsets almost everyone in her life, old and new. The other thing I liked about this story was it’s setting. I am sucker for stories set in New York City. There’s something about that world that pulsates with possibility. I gobbled this book up in two days. I would give it an A.
This book — like two others I’ve recently read — centers on a woman who suffers a tragic loss and that loss is later (or even beforehand) picked up upon by her subconscious, leading to predictive dreams. (This plot line must be my catnip, because I just ate up all three of the books with these similar premises.) In The Life Intended, Kate, a New Yorker, met and married the love of her life in her late twenties. Within about a year of her marriage, her husband Patrick is killed in a car accident, devastating Kate. (This is not a spoiler since the plot point is literally on the back cover.) In any event, in the following 12 years, Kate hasn’t focused much on love, but she has taken her deceased husband’s advice and returned to school to become a music therapist. As the reader enters Kate’s life, she is now 40 years old, a successful music therapist — working mostly with children — and has met a new love who, to the delight of her friends and family, she’s preparing to marry. Just as she’s planning her wedding to Dan, Kate begins to have very vivid, life-like dreams where she is still married to Patrick. Both Patrick and she are 12 years older and have a pre-teen daughter named Hannah who is hard of hearing.
Oddly enough, in her non-dream life, Kate had just discovered that she can no longer have children. When she tells this to Dan he is perfectly fine with it, not expecting or wanting to have children at all. However, Kate, now knowing she can’t possibly have children, especially at her age is devastated — feeling like something else has been taken from her. As Kate continues having these strange dreams of an alternate life with Patrick and Hannah, she begins to feel estranged from Dan. And, acting upon some of the “facts” of her dream life, Kate decides to learn sign language and begin working with children who are hard of hearing under the supervision of a counselor who works with deaf children in the foster system and who teaches sign language. As the story progresses, Kate is torn in three ways — although still living with Dan and planning a wedding, she’s becoming increasingly unhappy with that relationship. She’s finding herself wishing and hoping that she can actually live in her alternate dream world even though she knows that’s impossible, and, to make things even more complicated, she’s finding herself growing interested in Andrew, the counselor and sign-language teacher, as well as a troubled pre-teen girl who he has asked her to work with while she awaits a potential reunion with her drug addicted mother.
I can’t lie. I could tell early on where this story might be heading. There’s a nugget of information relayed early in the story that tips off the reader, but since there are a couple of plot lines that are tricky and hit a dead end for our character, I began to wonder if I was wrong. However, no! I was not. Part of me was a little disappointed that things ended up almost exactly as I thought they might, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the ride. There’s something about loss, and dreams, and second chances that is so appealing. A bit of the magical or inexplicable in life, leading to happiness. I also loved most of the characters — other than Dan who understandably is upset and angry over his fate. The reader is set up not to like him, but that’s obviously unfair to him. Kate does become single-minded about what she’s feeling and dreaming about that upsets almost everyone in her life, old and new. The other thing I liked about this story was it’s setting. I am sucker for stories set in New York City. There’s something about that world that pulsates with possibility. I gobbled this book up in two days. I would give it an A.
bethgiven's review
4.0
Kate's husband, Patrick, died in a car accident twelve years ago, and finally Kate is moving on -- or is she? She starts having incredibly vivd dreams in which Patrick is still alive -- and that she has a daughter. Is it just her subconscious dealing with real-life issues, or do the dreams mean something more? Is there some alternate reality in which Kate and Patrick live happily ever after? Can Kate reach that reality somehow -- or does she even want to? She may not have intended for life to turn out how it has, but Kate comes to realize that her adversities have helped her grow -- now it's up to her to choose happiness.
Okay, so this is a little bit of a fast-and-fluffy read -- and pretty darn predictable (I don't think there was a plot twist I didn't see coming). Some of the characterizations are a little two-dimensional (perfect-not-perfect Dan, the fiance, is a good example -- for some reason the reader's the only one can see that he's a jerk, so we're not at all sad when the inevitable breakup happens). But the story itself was engaging, and there were some interesting themes explored: growth through trials, finding fulfillment in career and family, and how might the past affect the future. Might make for an interesting book club discussion.
Clean readers: maybe a dozen swear words (including the s-word -- no f-bombs, thankfully) and references to sex (married and premarital), but nothing detailed.
Okay, so this is a little bit of a fast-and-fluffy read -- and pretty darn predictable (I don't think there was a plot twist I didn't see coming). Some of the characterizations are a little two-dimensional (perfect-not-perfect Dan, the fiance, is a good example -- for some reason the reader's the only one can see that he's a jerk, so we're not at all sad when the inevitable breakup happens). But the story itself was engaging, and there were some interesting themes explored: growth through trials, finding fulfillment in career and family, and how might the past affect the future. Might make for an interesting book club discussion.
Clean readers: maybe a dozen swear words (including the s-word -- no f-bombs, thankfully) and references to sex (married and premarital), but nothing detailed.
laurax2304's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ich hab zwar länger als sonst für das Buch gebraucht, aber ich fand es so toll.
Es war ein sehr trauriges Buch, aber es hat auch sehr viel positives gezeigt.
Indem Buch hat die Protagonisten mit dem Tod von ihrem Ehemann zu kämpfen, jedoch ist dieser schon 13 Jahre her. Auch wenn er schon sehr lange her ist, hat sie nie richtig damit abgeschlossen. Zum Ende des Buches versteht sie endlich wieso.
SPOILER (idk ob es wirklich einer ist): Ihr Mann wollte ihr am 11. September abends etwas erzählen, was ihr leben verändert hätte, sie hat jedoch erst 13 Jahre später erfahren was er ihr erzählen wollte und sie konnte erst dann mit seinem Tod richtig abschließen.
Sie hat dazu gelernt, dass es wichtig ist, den Weg so zu gehen, das man selber glücklich ist, auch wenn er mit dem Weg des Partners nicht übereinstimmt. da man jemanden zwar lieben kann, aber das heißt nicht, dass man zueinander passt.
Ich fand das Buch war so schön geschrieben und vor allem die Träume waren eine gut Abwechslung und haben sehr in die Geschichte rein gepasst, da man dadurch richtig gemerkt hat, dass Kate die Augen geöffnet wurden.
Selbst der Plot twist hat gepasst (auch wenn ich dadurch nur noch mehr geweint habe), da man danach gemerkt hat, wie zerrissen Kate durch diese Erkenntnis war, aber auch, dass sie endlich sehr viel mehr verstanden hat, vor allem, was die Träume zu bedeuten hatten.
Ich fand es etwas schade, dass man am Ende sehr wenig von Kate und Andrew und Hannah zusammen "gesehen" hat, aber sonst war die Geschichte einfach perfekt.
akstoft's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ktann11's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
lauralarua's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
floryjac's review
4.0
Devoured this in one sitting while ignoring my children. Ended with sobbing. If you like Jennifer Weiner type books, you'll love this.