In Loving Choices: An Experience in Growing Relationships, Dr. Bruce Fisher and Nina Hart start with the premise that your relationship with yourself is the foundation of all your other relationships. Accordingly, the first section of their latest book is devoted to "the process of bringing your heart and your head into balance to make loving choices."

This involves recognizing and accepting your feelings. They provide extensive guidance and examples for doing their "self-encounter" exercise. Self encounters provide a way to communicate honestly and skillfully with yourself. Fisher and Hart emphasize the importance of this, saying that "you cannot effectively communicate with another until you are clear about what's going on inside yourself and what it is you are trying to communicate."

Once people learn to communicate with themselves, they are ready for the "Healing Encounter," where they practice communicating with others. Many conflicts with others are rooted in power struggles. Fisher and Hart describe how people can recognize and defuse the internal conflicts leading to power struggles. They also explain the importance of internal and external boundaries in relationships and offer guidance on forming appropriate boundaries.

The authors say that "we tend to create relationships like the ones we observed in childhood, yet most of us don't want that kind of relationship." They explain how to determine the extent to which you're influenced by your early observations and experience, and how you can use that information to build the kind of relationship that your truly want now.

Relationships are meant to be teachers and to assist in our personal growth. That growth is built on three skills: communication, awareness, and commitment. Loving Choices teaches readers how to develop those skills and build happy and healthy relationships that contribute to the well-being of all those involved.

Out of all of the books which talk about different relationship issues, this is the only one that I have found which helps people to realize their contributions to all relationships in their lives, whether they be marital relationships or friendships or even business relationships. There are tools for communicating very well with yourself and others, so that one truly has a feeling for where one stands within a variety of situations. I have used their "self encounter" technique many times, and have found out some amazing things as a result. I now communicate much more effectively with my partner, and can say happily that we have very few misunderstandings from applying the ideas which I have learned from this book. I have wholeheartedly recommended this book to many friends, and feel that anyone who applies the ideas outlined here will be much happier in their interpersonal dealings.

"You, you take my breath away, and I don't know what to say....." This book and movie were great, I remember it when I was back in middle school, I would love to see the movie again & read the book, is there anyway to see this movie? Rex was soooo cute! :)

I first saw this movie when I was 14 and I rushed right out and bought the book. I think that's where my crushes on rock stars began! To this day I still have a softness in my heart for guys in bands and the movie is one of my all-time favorites. I was lucky enough to find a copy of it on Ebay. I really wish they would play this movie again on TV and re-print the books. Another generation of 14-year-olds would just love it!

I read this book & saw the movie when I was 15 (pretty long ago). I am always trying to stimulate my daughter to read & I remembered this story. I have been looking for the book for a year now, but can't find it. I will not give up!

After watching the movie Sooner or Later starring Rex Smith and Denise Miller, the sequel books are a bit disappointing, especially with the character of Michael Skye,(played by Rex Smith). I found the onscreen character and the book character different as night and day. Michael was portrayed as a shy,sexy somewhat lonely young man in the movie version which I found extremely appealing especially when he decided that he did want to make it work with Jessie despite the age difference. Rex Smith made Michael come alive but the book version does not do the character justice.

Now or Never is set three years after Waiting Games. Jessie is ready to graduate high school and is trying to get over losing Michael when he returns to Englewood under secretive circumstances which come out a little later in the book. Michael asks Jessie to forgive him for leaving her and also asks if they can be friends but Jessie is having a hard time coping due to her intense passion and love for him. It is too hard to "just be friends" when you love someone this much.

I did not feel that Michael really appreciated the love Jessie had for him and in my opinion, she was the only person who truly cared for him. The ending was too abrupt and left too many doors open on what happened to these two star crossed lovers. ALthough I enjoyed the trilogy of stories, Jessie and Michael are not finished. I would seriously recommend that the Harts finish this story and redeem Michael by portraying him as the good loving person he was in Sooner of Later.

I am a big fan of the movie "Sooner or Later". I have had the movie since 2001. Now at a young 39 I watch it once in awhile just to remember my teen years. By the way, I saw it the first time when I was 14.
I have recently purchased all three books and read them to cover to cover.
When I finished Now or Never. The first thing that came out of my mouth was " NO, THAT CAN'T BE THE END "
Please end the story of Michael and Jessie and let them live happily ever after.

I was reading the reviews and found them amusing because I too read the trilogy when I was a teenager. I decided recently to re-read them and they are as wonderful as they were back then. I stumbled accross these reviews quite by accident though because what I was looking for was a FOURTH book which to my dismay does not exist...if Bruce and Carol Hart are reading this, please make another book!!! The story of Jessie and Michael just isn't finished yet...

When I first purchased this book, I was expecting a little more insight into Jessie and Michael's relationship after they declared their love for one another in the sooner or later book. I felt that this book did not go into enough detail about the ups and downs of Michael and Jessies realtionship, nor did we really read enough about Michael's feelings at all. The big "love scene" was disappointing to say the least and from there Michael's transformation from a great guy to a waffling
jerk took place. The Michael I love from the movie SOL is not in this book nor will you find him in the third installment, Now or Never. I think the movie version has really spoiled me because Rex Smith's portrayal of Michael is totally different. He is maturer, sexier and you could really believe in the love he feels for Jessie.

..because it was the sequel to "Sooner or Later", which was an awesome little movie and book. In this sequel, Jessie and Michael consummate their relationship and then Michael leaves to go on tour...leaving Jessie worried about being pregnant for the remainder of the book. I kind of found it disturbing because Jessie is only 14 in the book, and you start to see that Michael is not the Prince Charming as portrayed in "Sooner or Later"...the story is very real and interesting and I would recommend it, however.

Waiting Games is a sequel to the popular book Sooner Or Later. I first read both books when I was 14, and re-read them until they were tattered. Jessie's struggle with first love is both funny and touching. The author's insight into the mind of a teenager, who is both worldly and childlike, is magical.

I read this book the first time about 15 or so years ago when I was a prepubescent teen, and only just "rediscovered" it when seeking out books and movies after developing a nostalgic hankering for those carefree bygone adolescent days. Although I remembered nothing about this book, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it still held up surprisingly well for me, though I found it's underlying theme of how soulmates end up together in the end endearing but all-too-uncommon--probably cause I've seen too much of life and have become cynical as a result. On to the story--It's about two high-school teens who don't even know of each others' existence: Julie Stillwell of New Jersey and Sean Manning of New York. Julie is a sensitive, introspective and creative girl who is given the distinguished and unprecedented honor of being the first junior to direct her school play. To her surprise, she falls for the first time with Roy Buckley, the quirky lead actor who becomes Julie's first lover and genuinely loves her but unfortunately has a roving eye. Sean is a sensitive and introspective senior and star athlete who's had other girls but falls hard for the unattainable Sarah Beth Cavanaugh, a dazzling rich girl who romances Sean on the side while her steady is away at college. These are two young people experiencing their first great loves but since they have fallen for individuals who are decent but "wrong" for them, inevitable heartbreak result and they feel they will never get over the pain, loss and ever experience intense love again. But unbeknownst to them, this agonizing ending is only the start of a bright new beginning . . . This book is directed toward the adolescent audience; however, like all their other books I've read, in addressing the feelings, situations and difficulties of being a teenager, the Harts' take a very perceptive, intelligent, grown-up and uncondescending approach--probably why adults like me still find it appealing and highly readable (unlike the silly and vacuous Sweet Valley High series which I definitely will not be seeking out--no offense!). Doesn't gloss over, sensationalize or cheapen the aspects of teen sex, but approaches it in a thoughtful, unexploitative and nonjudgemental manner. A thoroughly good read with a lot of substance and soul, and in my opinion just as good as the Harts' much more famous "Sooner or Later," though this one remains my favorite of their books with its highly effective parallel story technique (that is, each chapter swings back and forth between Julie and Sean in simultaneous time) and tender realism.

This book is written in an accessible and practical format. It assumes nothing but at the same time treats the reader as an intelligent participant on the journey to understanding evidence based practice.

It is up to date and I was especially impressed with the web address it gives to ensure the reader is kept abreast of any changes since publication.

It systematically explains the need and use of 'evidence', how to find it (the search advice is comprehensive and includes details such as search terms and the best search engines aswell as web addresses) how to evaluate it and also how to act on it.

All in all this book was great, and I would reccomend it to anyone involved in evidence based healthcare practice as it will guide you through the thorniest problems.

This is essentially a book for the under-5's that does nothing apart from tell everyone how great Bret Hart is, over and over again. The minimal text and lots of blank page space just makes the whole thing that much worse. Unless you are a REALLY huge Bret Hart fan(which is very unlikely considered) avoid this cheap knockoff.

It really gets into Bret's life and I had a better idea of what his life is like and how he had struggles he's had to deal with.It was cool to see how he overcame it all. It was interesting to see what his values are. He is one of my favorite superstars. The book also states what Bret's family life is like and is like as a father. The book states also how well Known Bret is and how admieable he is and how he makes a great role model. Michelle