A heartwarming, perceptive romance with just enough high-stakes drama to keep readers turning the pages.
A young woman falls in love with an ex-con who’s desperately trying to clear his name in this charming romance-cum-mystery.
Eve’s on a much-deserved vacation following the death of her father, but her trip nearly turns deadly following an ill-advised dip in the ocean. A handsome, mysterious stranger comes to her rescue, and the two promptly fall into bed. What should have been a one-night stand slowly turns into something more when Eve and Adamo discover they’re both passengers on a cruise from Barbados to Europe. Soon, Eve has settled in with Adamo at his picturesque inn in Positano. (The vivid descriptions of the Amalfi Coast are likely to inspire more than one Italian getaway.) Yet her lover’s past—a stint in prison for embezzlement, a crime he didn’t commit—casts a shadow on their bliss. Eve, with the help of her IRS agent brother-in-law, a Mafia-connected businessman, and the sister of Adamo’s dead business partner (who committed suicide under strange circumstances), sets out to clear his name. McDowell’s (Romantic Road, 2015, etc.) sixth novel is a well-balanced mix of romance and mystery. The hot-and-heavy beginning initially suggests that Adamo and Eve’s attraction might be purely physical, but a sweet, believable romance springs from that initial encounter. Eve, initially “deeply afraid of life,” discovers the happiness she’s longed for, while Adamo learns to let go of past traumas. Watching this mature, sensible pair figure out each other’s quirks is truly enjoyable. Bringing her hero and heroine together early on also leaves McDowell free to concentrate on solving the story’s central mystery. Discovering who set Adamo up isn’t too difficult, though he is initially too good-hearted (or perhaps naïve) to realize the obvious. His passive, nice-guy persona is the book’s major fault, and at times, one wishes for a hero with a bit more verve. Still, the business of ensnaring those who conspired to send Adamo to prison has enough twists and turns to be entertaining even when it’s obvious where it’s all leading.
A heartwarming, perceptive romance with just enough high-stakes drama to keep readers turning the pages.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5092-0470-0
Page Count: 278
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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