A sweet nothing of a sequel to Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast (1996), a collection of recipes, book lists, and slightly silly narrative noodlings about the lives of fraternal twins Hector and Virgil, their pets, their guests, acquaintances, and idle hours at their British Columbian island retreat. When we last left the brothers, whose stories have become Canadian broadcaster Richardson's coyly amusing stock-in-trade, life was close to perfect, even if the inn's assortment of eccentric, blue-haired guests could be counted on to set off controversies about breakfast garnishes and yogic breathing. After being offered lists of the brothers' favored cookbooks, some peculiar recipes, and titles appropriate for lavatory reading, we learn that Hector has adjusted to his intermittently passionate relationship with lubriciously feminine journalist Altona, and Virgil, who still can't abide the sound of a saxophone, can smile kindly on the fishy belches of Waffles the cat. The brothers have taken on a handyman, Caedon Harkness, an unemployed roof-thatcher and proud owner of Canada's only thatched-roof mobile home. Harkness was found acceptable by Mrs. Rochester, the inn's Bible-quoting parrot, and now shatters the mornings by humming arias from Tosca and Turandot as he dusts. A whiff of a plot appears about 70 pages in, when local poet Solomon Solomon, disreputable lecher and drunk, is apparently incinerated when his 12-foot-thick ball of cigarette foil is struck by lightning. Could the mysterious, coded manuscript found in a locked safe behind a bad painting in the brothers' inn be the poet's perverse masterwork? Did he know the bachelors' long-deceased mother? And, oh, yes, does anybody need a recipe for bottled pickles? Harmless, sweetly miscellaneous glimpses into a pastoral paradise that, at its best, resembles its author's definition of a good bathroom book: so ``sufficiently pithy that it can be absorbed in brief spurts.''
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1997
ISBN: 0-312-16779-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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