An entertaining romance novel with an engrossing plot, a conflicted heroine, and a couple of surprising, poignant takeaways.
A young poetry professor debates whether to follow her heart or mind.
At the center of this novel is Miranda—a late 20-something, New York–based poetry professor who feels content in her life, if a little bored. Miranda’s quiet existence is shaken one Thanksgiving when her stepmother alerts her that Scott Cramer, an old flame and son of a family friend whom she once considered “her brother and best friend rolled into one,” will be attending the holiday meal that year at their house outside of New Haven, Connecticut. Scott had disappeared mysteriously from her life more than six years previously, after a tender romantic moment at her apartment—leaving Miranda to pine for him and question what went wrong. When Miranda and Scott encounter each other for the first time after years of separation, it’s clear that there are still sparks between them. But there is an added complication: Scott has a child, Lynn, and not many answers about where she came from and what happened to him years before. As Miranda grapples with old, torturous feelings of unrequited love for Scott, she begins a risky relationship with a charming Irish graduate student named Ronan. She also ponders whether she should sell out by making money from the Scrabble poetry she posts on social media channels instead of pursuing the path of a traditional writer. While there’s nothing weighty in this fun, lighthearted book in terms of subject matter, the novel includes plenty of steamy sex scenes as well as some unexpected plot twists and turns. Granett (Cars and Other Things That Get Around, 2014) also includes an intriguing, relatable human dilemma as Miranda tries her new “lightness” and “no strings attached” attitude on for size. The protagonist must ultimately decide whether it is smarter to listen to the warnings of her rational brain or simply allow herself to follow what feels right to her passionate heart.
An entertaining romance novel with an engrossing plot, a conflicted heroine, and a couple of surprising, poignant takeaways.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-942545-40-8
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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