Loves Legacy [Paperback]

The story starts during Medievel times and ending in the present day. All the stories revolve around this one book, a love story written when books were rare and costly. This book brings couples together...they love the love story. Some of the stories don't flow as well as others. hence only the four stars. Overall a really wonderful book, makes you laugh and it makes you cry.

From the back cover:

Imagine a book--a love story--so hauntingly romantic, so emotionally powerful that it changes the lives of all who read it. Eleven of the greatest romance writers in the world have envisioned such a tale and brought it to life, creating a heartfelt personal legacy: a volume dedicated to the cause of literacy in the United States.

Between these covers are noble knights and dashing swashbucklers, penniless waifs and beautiful belles--all those whose destinies have been touched by Love's Legacy.All profits will be donated to The Literacy Partners!

And my review:

The problem with this book is that all of the stories are just way too short. There are eleven novellas in a book that is 441 pages long. Do the math and you end up with about 30 - 40 pages per story (I counted, and they all fell within that range).

One thing that really disappointed me is that the love story that affects everyone who reads it is not here. It's something that is only alluded to in each novella, but doesn't really exist. There is no actual story of Damon and Angeline, it's only referred to. I would have really liked this book to start out with the book that all the other stories in it refer to and are affected by, instead of just leaving it up to my imagination. But maybe that's just me...

Almost all of the stories dealt with someone who could not read, but wanted to learn, in keeping with the cause of literacy that this book was published to help promote.

Some of the stories just made me snort in disbelief. Seriously. Out loud. (Glad I was at home at the time!) In Virginia Henley's, she uses the most ridiculous description during the love scene. Madeline Baker makes a huge mistake in hers. In it, the power goes out, so the heroine has to light candles, yet somehow her stove works so that she can make hot chocolate. Hmm, I've never been in a selective power outage before (and no, it wasn't a wood or gas stove!)

That being said, some of this book was enjoyable, but there was pretty much no room for anything besides plot, and this was not a sampling of anyone's best work. However, Mary Balogh's Regency, Cassie Edward's Native American, and Penelopi Neri's Dickens' style romances were all very good. I kept the book for those three stories. And I did like the idea of a story so touching that it changed the life of anyone who read it.

Titles in this book (in the order they appear):

Fairy Tale by Heather Graham

Letter of Love by Virginia Henley

The Betrothal Ball by Mary Balogh

Golden Treasures by Catherine Hart

Loving Charity by Elaine Barbieri

Savage Fantasy by Cassie Edwards

Hidden Treasures by Penelope Neri

Winds of Change by Janelle Taylor

Annabelle's Legacy by Diana Palmer

Kindred Hearts by Lori Copeland

To Love Again by Madeline Baker

I personally love this book. Yeah, all the individual stories were way too short, but what can you expect from a book that is written by so many authors? In a way, i like short stories because it makes you appreciate the characters that much more.

All stories were based around a book that was passed down from generation to generation. This book talked about how love was reached through struggle, risks, and determination.

The characters in each of the stories had different personalities yet they all had something in common....love.

There has to be at least one story in this book that you can relate to or that you feel can really happen outside of a book. I think the authors did a fabulous job in keeping their stories based around a book, and they each displayed love in a different way through different obstacles.

I really recommend it as it gives you an insight into a lot of different authors and how they write and what characters they use. My personal favorite was the last one by Madeline Baker.