The author of several lighthearted romances sequined with one- word titles (Deception, 1993, etc.) again sets her fragile mystery and sportive verbal and physical foreplay in what seems to be the Regency era. This time a proud noble is reined in for cozy loving and lusting by another feisty Quick heroine, an ex-schoolteacher knowledgeable about classical antiquities. The supposedly widowed Iphiginia Bright dresses in virginal white and swans about in a little white and gilt carriage, encouraging the ton to believe she was the mistress of Marcus Cloud, Earl of Masters, whom she assumes is dead. He's not. There's much fuss and fuming as she tries to explain to Marcus that her masquerade was aimed at catching the blackmailer of her Aunt Zoe. (This makes as much sense to the reader as it does to Marcus, but who cares?) Other blackmail attempts come to light as Marcus and Iphiginia sleuth, separately and together, and he investigates her foggy past. (Was there a Mr. Bright?) The pair, in and out of harness, meet in unlikely places: a graveyard crypt, a hall of naughty statuary, and the forthrightly titled ``Dr. Hardstaff's Museum of the Goddesses of Manly Vigor.'' Eventually blackmail victims will be forced to exhume old secrets while Marcus and Iphiginia parry and thrust (more parry than thrust) to overturn Marcus's rules concerning messing with virgins, remarrying, or revealing the past. At the close the culprit is cornered in Dr. Hardstaff's establishment. As usual, Quick's heroine is bright and relentlessly bubbly, while her unbending toff finally softens to a jelly bean. Occasionally there are flashes of wit through the coy formula romance, as in this view of a dancing crowd: ``Shimmers of excitement ruffled their gaudy wings. Greedy anticipation lit their hard, faceted eyes.'' Reliable. Surefire. Bestselling.
Pub Date: June 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-553-09352-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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