by Aleatha Romig ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2019
A crime tale that’s enlivened by a sometimes-heartbreaking but always endearing romance.
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In Romig’s (Lies, 2018, etc.) romantic drama, a New York City entrepreneur marries the love of his life and gains a family—a Mafia family.
It’s the mid-1970s when Oren Demetri first sees Angelina Costello at New York University. He’s immediately enamored with her but fearful of approaching her when he realizes that she’s part of the Mafia-tied Costello family. Nine years later, after he’s made the real estate company Demetri Enterprises a success, he has a chance encounter with Angelina. This time, he doesn’t resist, and after a year of dating, he’s ready to marry her. First, he asks permission from Angelina’s crime-boss uncle Carmine, who’s raised her since her parents’ mob-related murders. Carmine makes clear that if Oren is marrying Angelina, he’s marrying into the family. For starters, this means that Oren must start carrying a weapon to ensure Angelina’s safety. He also begins working with Carmine’s son, Vincent, and his own company soon becomes a Costello umbrella. Although the businesses that Oren incorporates are outwardly legitimate, they provide an easy way for the family to launder money. The dark, violent world of organized crime eventually taints the Demetris’ home life when there’s a killing on the same day that the couple’s first child is born. Later, a rumor circulates that a hit on a mob boss was an inside job, and the Costellos may be in imminent danger from people who think they ordered the murder. Meanwhile, Oren faces the possibility of losing the family that he and his wife have made. Romig concentrates his story on Oren and Angelina’s struggling relationship. As a result, certain elements of the Mafia plot stay in the background, including an ongoing federal investigation. The author also scales back the mob-related violence in favor of more suspenseful scenes; in several instances, for example, characters worry about assassins targeting Angelina. In fact, the perpetual sense of threat throughout the book helps to make Oren a more sympathetic protagonist. For instance, when his work for Carmine trumps Angelina’s weekend plans, he bluntly tells her the reason why: “I can’t say no to your uncle.” The evolution of the couple’s relationship is both riveting and poignant. Over the course of three decades, they experience a blissful romance before hitting numerous snags in their marriage. But even when they’re fighting, their love is beyond question; Romig provides readers with persistent reminders of their devotion to each other, such as Oren calling Angelina “mio angelo” (“my angel”). The author’s illustrative prose highlights these romantic aspects even when the two are arguing: “Against the white of the pillows, I could make out the curves of her face, her cheekbones, and the pout of her lips.” The novel becomes more tragic as it nears its end, with a few deaths and one of the Costellos insisting that the Demetris’ adult son take part in the family business. But the overall story, like Oren and Angelina’s marriage, is bittersweet and worthwhile.
A crime tale that’s enlivened by a sometimes-heartbreaking but always endearing romance.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947189-40-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Romig Works
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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