An entertaining novel that founders in its superficial treatment of its characters, particularly women.
Intrigue, romantic rivalries, and mistaken identities abound in this Victorian drama.
Nathan Sinclair, the protagonist and piano-playing prodigy of Colton’s debut work of historical fiction, doesn’t think he’s anything other than the poor son of a French opera singer. But a meeting with celebrity debutante Jocelyn Charlesworth, so beautiful that “once you gaze upon her countenance, it is impossible to resist staring…disbelieving that a face could be so radiant,” launches an adventure he never could have imagined. Pursued by debt collectors, Nathan decides to become a fugitive, evading the law while performing at the social gatherings of London’s elite. At one such party, he’s introduced to Regina Lancaster, with whom he immediately falls in love. Though not as beautiful as Jocelyn, Regina, who lost her parents at a young age in a fire, helps place orphans with loving families. Meanwhile, Jocelyn, who needs “the perfect excuse to decline introductions and put a halt to [her] tedious letter writing,” hatches a scheme to convince her meddling family she’s courting Nathan, promising him that “since this shall all be a game, our feelings cannot be truly hurt.” Hoping to discredit Nathan, Jocelyn’s brother secretly publishes an article claiming that Nathan’s father was an art forger who was “sent to prison for twenty years, where he died.” Humiliated, Nathan disappears from London’s high society, but he is finally free to propose to his “beloved” Regina. A final twist reveals Nathan’s true parentage and ensures his engagement to Jocelyn, but he already promised himself to Regina. Nathan must choose between Jocelyn’s wealth and beauty and Regina’s virtue. Though this is an exciting read, packed with mysteries and unexpected twists, it lacks charm. The final chapters of the book resolve disappointingly, and women are treated solely as objects for marriage. According to Colton, beauty is a woman’s most valuable trait; the literally “disfigured” Regina is more suited for work than love, while the desired Jocelyn is destined for a life of “passion and pleasure.” The flat treatment of these female characters makes an otherwise engrossing novel unlikable.
An entertaining novel that founders in its superficial treatment of its characters, particularly women.Pub Date: July 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68114-229-6
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Anaphora Literary Press
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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