A nostalgic and intriguing story that blends a modern-day love triangle with details from Audrey Hepburn’s life.
A chef tries to save her childhood home and juggles the affections of two men from her past in this updated take on the Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina.
Emma Jansen owns a successful catering business that serves some of the most exclusive parties in New York, but she can’t escape the pull of her childhood home in Glen Cove. It wasn’t exactly her home—her parents were the hired help, and Emma lived with them in an apartment above the garage. The Audrey Hepburn Estate (so named because it shares an address with the house in the film Sabrina) was the site of some of her most cherished memories—and some of her most painful ones. She was desperately in love with Henry van der Wraak, the grandson of the estate’s owners. She also formed a deep friendship with Leo L’Unico, the son of the van der Wraaks’ driver. Now, years later, Leo is a developer intent on demolishing the estate so he can build a luxury apartment complex. Emma reconnects with Henry in her attempt to save the house from destruction, but excavating her past brings buried secrets to the surface. She still has complicated feelings for both Henry and Leo, but managing the affections of two men is far from her only problem. Emma also discovers some secrets about the estate that call into question everything she’s ever believed about her own family. Janowitz weaves in details about Audrey Hepburn’s films and also the actor's real life, including her childhood in Holland during World War II. Although the chemistry between Emma and her two love interests never quite ignites, Emma’s journey to let go of her past and solve the mystery of the estate is full of interesting historical details. Janowitz includes a fascinating author’s note that explains Hepburn’s struggle during the war as well as the many easter eggs that appear in the text.
A nostalgic and intriguing story that blends a modern-day love triangle with details from Audrey Hepburn’s life.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781525811487
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Graydon House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
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