A lighthearted and satisfying romance in the world of French perfume.
A billionaire lures a grocery clerk into a false marriage for mysterious reasons.
In the opening of this romance, readers meet both Count Sebastian Darcy du Grand-Thouars de Saint-Maurice (“a stinking-rich aristocrat”) and the woman who loves to hate him, Diane Petit. Darcy is the proprietor of Parfums d’Arcy, the first name in French fragrance and the cause, Diane is certain, of her father’s ruin. Charles Petit had a small line of artisanal perfumes—excellent scents he developed himself—but Darcy drove him out of business. Seeking vengeance and denied an appointment at the young billionaire’s Paris office, Diane tracks him down to a reception and throws a cream cake in his face. He finds her “foxy” and starts scheming. He hires a private investigator to follow her, photograph her covertly, and learn more about what makes her tick. After surprising her at the supermarket where she works as a cashier, Darcy makes his pitch. “I’m prepared,” he explains, “to pay fifty thousand euros for a maximum of six months in a pretend relationship.” Why the sham marriage, the cash offer, the choice of Diane as co-conspirator? She’s shocked at first, but, after mulling it over mulled wine, she decides to use the proposal to her advantage: she’ll either part with him in six months (with money for her ailing father), or she’ll use the time to snoop through his personal things for damaging secrets. “I’m still a convinced socialist,” Diane reassures her audience, but the reader is not persuaded. Diane is awed by the wealth she encounters (the stately Château d’Arcy in Burgundy and the ancient Grotte d’Arcy nearby) and made jealous by the beautiful women in Darcy’s orbit. She finds herself attracted to him, and he to her. While Nichols (Playing with Fire, 2017, etc.) keeps the blithe tale moving swiftly, as the chapters alternate between Diane’s and Darcy’s points of view, the reader is occasionally at a momentary loss, wondering who is speaking. But the author infuses the appealing love story with diverting descriptions. Darcy’s charisma, Diane tells readers, “yes, dammit, charisma—envelops me in a soft, yummy-smelling cocoon and lifts me up.” A crime plot toward the end might have been more effective had it been foreshadowed, but this is a short novel written in the spirit of pure pleasure, and it delivers just that.
A lighthearted and satisfying romance in the world of French perfume.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5346-8436-2
Page Count: 273
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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