You always knew that Wall Street wives were as glamorous, intriguing, and desperately unhappy as their Hollywood counterparts, and now comes confirming fictional testimony from first-novelist Winkler, herself an accomplished Wall Street wife. Ariane Wakefield, the only decent member of her circle of bored, back-stabbing, bed-hopping helpmates, is mysteriously attracted to Alex Savage's silver eyes the moment she sees them, but she's too loyal to her indifferent husband Craig to think of any romantic involvements-until Craig's legal chicanery and casual adultery (and her repeated encounters with those silver eyes she'd never thought she'd see again) make her realize that her whole marriage has been a sham. As for Alex, a government agent who's been hired to get to dangerously kinky drug-dealer and "Rapunzel strangler" Hassan through his ties to Craig, he thinks Ariane is either one of the most innocent people he's ever known or an incredible actress. Alex, Who's a very complex man, longs to make love to Ariane until she cries out his name in surrender, and he finally does, many times. The sex scenes are separated, like production numbers in an MGM musical, by episodes showing Ariane fighting her passion for Alex, declaring her independence from Craig, working her way up to success as a fashion designer, feeling guilty when she can't weep over Craig's murder, and getting climactically assaulted by dead-eyed Hassan-who doesn't kill her but leaves her to be avenged by Alex, whose friend Travis, watching the rescue, realizes that Alex really loves Ariane. Formal wear by Chanel, Givenchy, and Yves St. Laurent. Sportswear by Bill Blass and Armani. Hosiery (very important) by Fogal. Accessories by Cartier, Harry Winston, Patek Philippe, Hermes, Braque, Kandinsky, and Rodin. Plotting by Jackie Collins.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1989
ISBN: 0515104396
Page Count: 388
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1989
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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