A satisfying romance bolstered by strong characters, detailed settings, and surprising plot twists.
In Morse’s debut romance, a business deal reunites a woman with the man who betrayed her years earlier.
In 1953, Ellen Hamilton is something of an anomaly in her hometown of Pitney, California. Fiercely independent and resolutely single, she’s built a satisfying life as the town librarian while occasionally helping her father, Sam, with the family business of Hamilton Manufacturing. Sam expects that his son, Tim, will one day run the company, but he also hopes Ellen will join full-time. Hamilton has built a profitable business making tractors, but Sam wants to expand into other products. Specifically, he plans to develop a tank in partnership with military contractor Riesel Lang—a risky but potentially lucrative move. A representative from Riesel Lang travels to Pitney to tour the factory and Ellen is shocked to discover that it’s John Adair, a former Hamilton employee whom she once hoped to marry. Their passionate romance ended abruptly amid allegations that John had stolen from the company. But he never forgot the beautiful, intelligent woman who won his heart—and he’s determined to win her back. Ellen, meanwhile, can’t deny her own continued attraction to John, but their reunion is complicated by the old allegations and her father’s and brother’s schemes. Morse successfully weaves a lively romance together with a tale of complex corporate skullduggery that often feels like a gripping thriller. Its characters and setting are particularly well-developed. Ellen, for example, is a strong, independent heroine who’s determined to live her life on her own terms, even if it means defying her family’s expectations of her. Although John comes to Pitney with a hidden agenda, his feelings for Ellen are genuine, as is his desire to make amends. Their rekindled relationship crackles with romantic tension. The well-described settings render a convincing portrait of life in 1950s California. Meanwhile, a subplot involving Tim’s plan to wrest control of Hamilton from his father keeps the novel moving forward at a brisk pace.
A satisfying romance bolstered by strong characters, detailed settings, and surprising plot twists.Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1509201075
Page Count: 320
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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