A simplistic but well-written love story.
Pettersen’s (Studs and Stilettos, 2013) sweet cowboy romance challenges the notions of trust and forgiveness when those you love betray you.
Dani Tattrie is struggling to keep her ranch afloat while her husband, ex-biker Dex, does prison time after engaging in the ultimate betrayal and shutting her out. Her shattered heart is in as much disrepair as her ranch, but she’s a survivor, determined to do what it takes to recover and find her feet again. While Dex carefully navigates prison to ensure his own survival, Dani is being ruthlessly courted by Jeffrey, a town cop whom her minister father adores. Dex offers no excuses for what he’s done, but in prison, he’s risking his own future to protect others. Jeffrey is blatantly portrayed as a one-dimensional, manipulative mismatch for Dani, which winds up making Dani look weak and unsympathetic for falling for him as much as she does. Although Dex’s experiences in prison are vividly written, engaging and realistic, the real story doesn’t begin until halfway through the book, when he’s released from prison and returns to try to reclaim his old life with the wife who no longer trusts him. The extensive scenes between Jeffrey and Dani, which often illustrate his lack of support for her horse world and his insistence that she sell her beloved ranch, can feel redundant at times, making readers impatient for Dex and Dani to finally start interacting. When they finally get together, the chemistry between them is palpable, and as trust slowly regrows, it’s enjoyable to witness true love blossoming for a second time. Yet it seems that their entire conflict could have been cleared up by a simple conversation before the book even begins. The horse scenes in the book are wonderfully rich, showcasing Pettersen’s expertise and passion for horses. The surprise ending with Dani’s brother has an unexpected, clever twist, but the resolution feels rather incomplete since some characters never get their dues.
A simplistic but well-written love story.Pub Date: July 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0988115170
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Westerhall
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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