Phantom Waltz

Absolute beautiful love story. We could only wish ours were so never ending. Great narration!
Tears and laughter filled me until the end and beyond.

This is a bit of an atypical romance in that the main female character is a paraplegic at the time the relationship starts. I thought the author did a good job at showing the challenges that a paraplegic might face in life and in relationships. I was a bit disappointed because I thought the author planned to have the two married before they got intimate, but shortly after discussing that between the two of them, she had them in the bedroom anyway. I was glad to see that Sly found his love and married her also. I'm guessing his story will come in a future installment of the series.

Thoroughly unimpressed. Wheelchair-bound and a cowboy. Interesting premise, dull read.

I tried. I can't do it.

Between the info dumping about universal design to the freaking tire iron beating on my head while some crazy broad is screaming "BETHANY'S A CRIPPLE! A C-R-I-P-P-L-E! SHE'S LOST SO MUCH! ISN'T IT JUST THE WORST EVER?! SHE'S SO BRAVE TO KEEP GETTING OUT OF BED!" I just can't read this bullshit.

If we're supposed to see Bethany as a woman first, if this is supposed to be about how the human spirit is adaptable to overcome adversity, then why the hell is the entirety of the first few chapters completely focusing on the handicap rather than the person? How can the author convince the reader that a paraplegic is a woman like any other woman, when she clearly doesn't believe it herself?

I can see where this book is going, and I don't want to go there. I'm stopping now before I have a freaking fit of rage.

This was the first of the Coulter family books, about a paraplegic heroine. Very emotional, as are all her books, but the hero was just too perfect to make it a 5-star book. At least she does her handicapped heroines well, making them realistic, and not the usual people who attained sainthood along with their handicaps. Very interesting and frank discussion of sex for a paraplegic.

Phantom Waltz is a slow, sweet love story that expresses true love in it's purest form, a selfless giving of two people to each other in every way. Except for a couple of incidents, there isn't much action to speak of. Most of the conflict revolves around overcoming the heroine's disability and her emotions surrounding it, just good old-fashioned character driven romance. I must say that Catherine Anderson is masterful at character development, creating both primary and secondary characters that are easy to like and care about. There were lots of incredibly romantic moments, such as Ryan and Bethany's first date and kiss, Ryan arranging for them to dance, and their private exchange of vows in the wilderness to name a few. There were also a few laugh-out-loud funny moments, my favorite of which was their flirtatious exchange at her family's ranch supply store, when Ryan was looking for his “missing parts”. You have read it to see what I'm talking about, but it had me rolling on the floor. Also Bethany's cat who makes friends with Ryan's bull is a hoot. Although, there were parts in the story where Ryan and Bethany could have communicated better, I was generally impressed with their openness with one another and with their families, often talking freely about subjects that would make many people cringe with embarrassment. I like stories in which the main characters are friends before becoming romantically involved, so it was very enjoyable to read about the building of Ryan and Bethany's friendship. One of Ms. Anderson's trademarks that I really like is that her characters aren't prefect and they make mistakes in their relationships, but they usually seem to learn a valuable lesson and gain self-insight in the process. It makes for a lot of character growth throughout the book which is something I enjoy immensely in story-telling. Other than one incident involving Bethany near the end of the book which I have detailed below, I found the character growth in this story to be satisfying. I couldn't help but adore all the Kendrick men, Ryan, his brother, Rafe (Baby Love) and their father, Keefe. They all seem to fall hard, love fiercely, and protect their women with a vengeance, just the way I like my heroes. Both Ryan and Rafe were willing to lay down their lives for the women they loved which I find incredibly romantic. I liked the way that Catherine Anderson created love and romance in this story not just for the young, but also the young at heart. I thought it was really sweet that Keefe and Ann Kendrick were still madly in love and enjoying a healthy sex life after some thirty odd years of marriage. It was also adorable that the hardened ranch foreman, Sly, had fallen in love with Maggie's mother, Helen (Baby Love). Even though Bethany's parents played a smaller part in the story, they also had been married for many years and had a committed, loving relationship. While there was much to like about his book, there were a few things that bothered me. One minor and perhaps rather silly thing was that once Ryan and Bethany got going, they seemed to mate like rabbits.;-) While there certainly wasn't an overabundance of explicit love scenes in my opinion, there was mention of them making love sometimes upwards of four times a day. While I am certainly no prude and enjoy plenty of loving sensuality in my stories, this just simply seemed rather excessive and unrealistic to me, even for young lovers in the throes of newly discovered passion. There was also a part where Bethany was talking to virtual strangers about her sex life, in an attempt to figure out how to please Ryan, when I thought that she should have been communicating with him directly. While the whole scenario created both some amusement and some conflict which brought interest to the story, I just felt like a little more openness and honesty between them might have been in order. Eventually it happened, but just not quite soon enough to suit me. Both here and at the end of the book, I just felt like Bethany was taking the selfless love thing a bit too far. Bethany was a very interesting heroine. I had never read a heroine who was a paraplegic before, and I have to give Ms. Anderson kudos for writing a character who was so unique. I came away from reading this story feeling like I had learned something about paraplegia and had been given at least a small sense of what a person who is confined to a wheelchair must feel like. It was an eye opening experience, and I love any story that is intelligent enough to teach me something new. Bethany had a great personality too, a wonderful mix of shy, sweet innocence and sass gained from being the only girl growing up with five older brothers. Although she at times felt imprisoned by her wheelchair, she still had a certain zest for life which was understandably irresistible to Ryan. Even though I found Bethany to be a likable character, there were a couple of things about her than bothered me a bit. One was that I felt she was a little too tense, and took too long in my opinion, to simply let go and enjoy the attention that Ryan was lavishing on her and to realize that for him, seeing her happy made him happy too. Also, her reaction at the end of the book to his near death kind of frustrated me. I had thought by that time she had finally released her fears and reservations about their relationship and had accepted that she was not a burden to Ryan, so when she did an abrupt about face, it really took me by surprise. Even though there was a part of me that understood that Bethany thought she was doing this for selfless reasons, one could definitely make a strong case that there can be a fine line between selfless and selfish, and it seemed to me that her decision was made more out of fear than love. I just really like stories in which love overcomes everything including fear, which eventually it did, but I would have preferred that it had taken a different path to get there. The book still had a happy ending though, and alls well that ends well, I suppose. Ryan was an incredibly wonderful and dreamy hero who was completely accepting of Bethany's disability, always seeing the person and not just the wheelchair. He surprised her from the first day they met, and the surprises never seemed to end. Even though he wasn't 100% honest about his future intentions toward her, I thought it was very sweet how Ryan backed off on any kind of physical interactions, including kissing, in order to build a loving friendship with Bethany first. From there he completely wowed her into accepting his proposal by creating solutions to any and all arguments she might make against marriage and treating her like a princess. He was incredibly kind and patient with her always, but especially as they explored her fears and concerns over her possible sexual inadequacies due to her disability. Ryan was very creative, using pure ingenuity to come up with all sorts of ideas and inventions to make Bethany's life easier and more fulfilling, and most of all restoring the freedom she had craved since her accident. Best of all he put his life on the line for her, which is something I couldn't imagine any woman being able to resist.Phantom Waltz is the second book in Catherine Anderson's Kendrick/Coulter series. Readers get to visit with Rafe and Maggie and some of the secondary characters from Baby Love, the first book, and see where they are a couple of years later. We also get a good introduction to Bethany's brother, Jake, who becomes the hero of the third book, Sweet Nothings. Bethany's other four brothers are also mentioned and each of them gets their own book as well. The remaining books in the series in order are Blue Skies, Bright Eyes, My Sunshine, and Sun Kissed with another installment, Morning Light, due out soon which will expand the series to include the Harrigan family from Sun Kissed. Ms. Anderson also has a historical novel tied to the Coulter family titled Summer Breeze. While there were a few things about Phantom Waltz that I thought could have been better, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a sweet and gentle story full of truly romantic scenes. At this point, I have read and enjoyed enough of Ms. Anderson's books that she has definitely earned a place on my favorite authors list.