The Triple Challenge, by Maria Miller Stone, takes readers on a wonderful ride of adventure, world travel, emotional vulnerability, and love. Winsome, wild, and carefree, California heiress Madeleine Starx has everything she has ever wanted: money, fame, and friends. Moving from one one-night stand to another, Madeleine’s sexcapades draw the attention of her father, movie mogul, Gregory Starx. Laying down the law, Gregory threatens Madeleine with disinheritance unless she can find true love. Shocked, Madeleine is ready to protest when the plot thickens. Not only must Madeleine find love, but she must do so three times while traveling to three separate countries. Brutally, her father also limits her finances and requires proof of …show more content…
her success: three engagement rings. Over cocktails, Madeleine laments her fate and prepares for her triple challenge while her best friends, Karen and Cybil, offer support and advice. How can Madeleine possibly pull this off? Marie Miller Stone divides The Triple Challenge into three parts allowing readers to follow Madeleine from France to Italy, and to her final destination, Russia. In part one, L’Art de Vivre, the art of living; Madeleine must survive on a shoestring budget while exploring Paris. Visiting the sites and wandering the shops and cafes, Madeleine settles down for some comfort food. Looking up into her waiter’s deep blue eyes, Madeleine meets Didier Durand. Charmed by his attentiveness, Madeleine embarks on her first challenge. In part two of the story, La Dolce Vita, the sweet life, Madeleine is in Italy.
Dejected after having to leave France, how can she possibly face another challenge? To overcome her melancholy, Madeleine immerses herself by writing about her French adventure. Coming up for air, she begins to explore Rome’s shops, architectural wonders, and she begins to enjoy the atmosphere of one of the world’s most famous cities. While sitting reading under the Roman sun, Madeleine is approached by Fabrizio Longi, fashion designer and Roman God by the looks of him. He asks Madeleine to be his muse for an American inspired collection. So starts her second …show more content…
challenge. In part three, Life’s a Bitch Beach, Madeleine has moved on to Russia. While at the airport, she bumps into an old hook-up from California, bassist Jeremy Bullet who turns out to be Russian native, Dmitry Bulavin. Back in Russia to deal with an inheritance from his late Grandmother, Dmitry gives Madeleine his number. Feeling like it is fate running into Dmitry a world away from California, Madeleine confers with her best friends, Karen and Cybil and decides Dmitry will be her third challenge. In The Triple Challenge, Maria Miller Stone has created a story where a young woman grows into her own and learns to live, love and finds a passion for writing.
Forced into the challenge by her father, she never realizes that this journey will end with her finding herself. Besides the depth of character of Madeleine herself, Stone provides Madeleine with supporting characters that are passionate, caring, and interesting in their own rights. Her love interests are all handsome, driven men who readers learn to love along with Madeleine. Her best friends, Karen and Cybil, are always there to lend support, advice, and require Madeleine to keep her head in the game. Other characters that readers will enjoy are Tessa, Madeleine’s mother, Bernard who acts as Madeleine’s assistant and Gregory Starx’s lackey throughout the trip abroad, and Jeanette, Madeleine’s younger
half-sister. Overall, I rate The Triple Challenge, 4 out of 4 stars. Stone takes her readers right along on the emotional and sometimes touching journey with Madeleine. The plot is well developed and Stone’s descriptive prose brings to life the beauty and wonders of Paris, Rome, and Moscow. What seemed to be a vindictive challenge put forth by Madeleine’s father turns out to be a testament to his love for his daughter and she becomes the young woman he knows she can be. That is some inheritance! I recommend this book to readers who enjoy erotic romance or just a good love story times three.
In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For example, at the start of their adventure, Mattie leaves P...
As she got older, Jeannette and her siblings made their own life, even as their parents became homeless. Jeannette and her older sister Lori decide to run away from their family in Virginia and go start a new life in New York City. However, after a few months, the rest of the family moves to New York and settles down. While in the City, Jeannette gets a job as a reporter, which was her life goal, and one day on her way to an event she sees her mother rummaging around in a dumpster. While the rest of the family gets along, Maureen, the youngest of the family goes insane and stabs their
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
When she decided to try and help a young juvenile, Wesley Benfield, become a better person by taking him to church and offering him to stay the night with her, Robert thought that Mattie was sick. Pearl Turnage, Mattie's older sister, has given in to the stereotypes that are now plaguing Mattie, and insists that she do the same. In fact, she invites Mattie to accompany her to the funeral home, where they will each pick out a casket that they are to be buried in. Pearl pushes the subject, as if to force Mattie into realizing that she doesn't have much time left to live. Pearl also begins talking to Mattie about the past and the fun that they once had, as if to tell Mattie that those days are over and that it is time for her to begin a new chapter in her life.
As child, Margaret was raised primarily by her mother and grandmother; her father had been taken hostage in Dijon, Burgundy when she was only a few years old. With her mother in charge of her education, Margaret was able to study with the same tutors who taught her brothers until the age of fift...
Working at her father’s clothing shop, she became very knowledgeable about expensive textiles and embellishments, which were captured in her works later in career. She was able to capture the beauty and lavishness of fabrics in portraits of aristocratic women.
The book I chose to read was “Smile for the Camera” by Kelle James, Copyrighted in 2010. It starts off with chapter one. Kelle, the main character, is lying in bed when her dad walks in. he has a gun in his hand and hes crying, not a good combination according to her. Kelle pretends to be asleep. She decides she needs to leave home. That’s where chapter two begins. She climbs onto the enormous Greyhound bus with her suitcase in hand. She waves goodbye to her father but he only nods. Kelle’s father never really liked her. In fact he hated her. As the bus pulls away, her father waves to her. Kelle was on her way to New York City.
T.Ray, her father, has a very large lack of sensitivity towards Lily in regard to this event in their life. “The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd comeback to get her things, that's all. You can hate me all you want, but she’s the one who left you." (Kidd, 39). After an argument between Lily and her father, he tells her that Deborah left her. He also makes fun of her attempts to improve her knowledge by reading books. “Who do you think you are, Julius Shakespeare?” (Kidd, 16). Events continue to occur where T.Ray proves he’s not a good fit for a father position in her life, and they eventually lead her to build a hatred for him, which will lead her on her journey to discovering more about her mother. “When T. Ray gives Lily a hard time about bird droppings on the floor, Lily realizes Rosaleen must lover her ‘beyond reason’ when she stands up to T.Ray and defends Lily’s pet.” (Hebert, 14). Rosaleen is a black woman who cares for the Owen’s household; she is the first character that acts as Lily’s mother figure. “At the beginning of the novel Lily perceives Rosaleen as a protector – someone who is willing to create a safer environment – something Lily desperately needs for her emotional growth.” (Herbert, 14). Rosaleen is portrayed as Lily’s defender against T.Ray. Rosaleen is the first mother figure to enter the story
This essay will include “The Necklace”, “Civil Peace”, and “The Thrill of the Chase”. The necklace is a great example of how our desires can create tragedy rather than happiness. Madame Forestier would have rather been idolized for her wealth instead of buying items that grant her survival. She says,”It’s just that I have no evening dress and so I can’t go to the party.”
Stella-Rondo brings out jealousy in Sister that causes tension between them. Sister hates that Stella-Rondo married Mr. Whitaker since Sister supposedly had him first. She feels like Stella-Rondo broke them up by lying. Most likely, Sister is upset because she was not the one to end up with the guy she liked, but she displays her feelings childishly. Sister’s snide comments towards her sister are the real reason that Stella-Rondo turns their family against her. Stella-Rondo’s lies about her daughter, Shirley T., increase Sister’s jealous feelings. Stella-Rondo claims that Shirley-T. is adopted, but Sister does not believe her. Sister wants her family to see through Stella-Rondo’s lies and realize that this two-year old child is not adopted. She points out that Shirley-T. is the “spitting image of Papa-Daddy” (359). Sister cannot stand that Stella-Rondo left Mr. Whitaker after only staying married to him for two years. The fact that “the first thing she did was separate! From Mr. Whitaker!” when Stella-Rondo got married and moved away infuriates Sister (359). Consequently, Sister makes sure her family knows that she had him first. In the heat of the moment at the end of the story, Sister starts saying that Mr. Whitaker left Stella-Rondo, not vice versa, which only builds up more tension.
In the short story “An Adventure in Paris” by Guy De Maupassant an unnamed woman seeks for adventure, love, and excitement. An unnamed narrator starts to explain the inner nature and curiosity of a woman. The story transitions to the point of view of an unnamed lawyer’s wife which allows us to see her deepest desire to travel to Paris and be part of the lavishing life she has seen in the magazines. To escape her regular routine she makes a plan to go to Paris; however, her family members are only middle class and cannot help her fulfill her desire to live the life of a celebrity, fame, and fashion. Just when her trip seems to be monotonous she comes across the chance to live the life of an extravagant person. This chance happens when she meets Jean Varin, a wealthy author, in a store wanting to purchase a Japanese figurine. When Varin decides that the figurine is too expensive the lawyer’s wife steps up to buy the figurine which causes Varin to notice her. She flirtatiously invites herself into Varin’s daily activities which intrigue Varin. As the day closes she invites herself to Varin’s house and has an affair with Varin; however, she doesn’t feel she is satisfied because of his many needs. She anxiously waits till morning to come so that she can leave which only confuses Varin. When Varin asks her why she is leaving after all they have been through she states that she wanted to know what depravity felt like; however, it was not what she expected. The central idea of the story is about a woman’s psychological desire for romance, adventure, and an opulent lifestyle that leads to curiosity and the immoral act of adultery.
“The Love of My Life,” by T.C. Boyle, tells a love story about a teen couple who has to go on separate ways to attend college. Earlier, they go on a camping trip and have unprotected sex. China finds out she is pregnant and tells Jeremy about it. Jeremy tells China to terminate her pregnancy, but China refuses to see a doctor and lets her pregnancy advance. She ends having her baby in a motel room without any medical assistance; just with Jeremy’s help she delivers her baby. The couple decides to dump the baby in a dumpster, and later they get arrested for their crime.
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
For my second reading selection I chose Where or When, also written by Anita Shreve. There are two main characters, Charles and Sian. Charles sees Sian's picture in the newspaper because she has just released another poetry book. They knew each other 31 years ago when they both attended a camp at The Ridge. Charles (known as Cal to Sian when they were younger) feels compelled to be reunited with her. They correspond with each other for a time and are reunited the Thursday following November 30, about two months from the first letter. Together they find what it is they thought they shared when they were 14 years old. There are many more complications now in their lives such as husbands, children, and tradition. They search for ways to overcome these problems and find the innocent bliss they once had reveled in. The struggle is not easy and ends unfortunately tragically.
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s first novel and is considered his masterpiece. It has been studied from various angles by the critics. Some study it as a realistic novel of the nineteenth century rooted in its social milieu. There are other critics who have studied it as a satire of romantic sensibility. It is simply assumed that Emma Bovary, the protagonist, embodied naive dreams and empty cliché that author wishes to ridicule, as excesses and mannerisms of romanticism. She is seen as a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Innumerable theorists have discovered and analysed extensively a variety of questions raised by its style, themes, and aesthetic innovations. In this research paper an attempt has been made to analyse life of Emma Bovary as a paradigm of Lacanian desire.