A plausibly chilling future scenario marred by a sugarcoated ending.
Think the energy crisis is painful now? Wait until 2013.
When college teacher Roberta Wilcox, her job lost, returns to her childhood home in Coward’s Hole, R.I., she finds that most of the inhabitants have fled to warmer climes because heating oil and gas are severely rationed and even food is hard to come by. But Roberta’s own family and their rural neighbors are resisting a government relocation plan that urges the hardy New Englanders to move closer to major cities, where they would use fewer precious resources in travel. Roberta’s halfsister wants her 89-year-old grandmother and widowed father to move into her home in town. Struggling to keep things going, often without electricity, Roberta helps her grandmother while her half sister constantly criticizes her efforts. As Roberta’s high-school boyfriend Steve Reynolds, who’s guarding secrets of his own, fans the flames of their old romance, Roberta finds herself attracted to her new neighbor, retired lawyer Lucas Whitford. Pushing his sawmill to turn out lumber despite his difficulties in getting fuel, her father maintains a puzzling relationship with their wealthy and heartily disliked neighbor Senator Frederick Maine, who bought the wooded lot that financed Roberta’s education. Roberta struggles to break through the web of secrets her family is hiding from her. Her feminist mother was killed in a mysterious car accident, and her father continues to blame her for the loss of his beloved land. Conspiracy theories abound among the Swamp Yankees, their trust in government never strong, as they fight to keep their homes and farms. Only after her father’s death and a near catastrophe does Roberta discover the secrets of the past and find hope for the future.
A plausibly chilling future scenario marred by a sugarcoated ending.Pub Date: March 19, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59414-673-2
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
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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