Fast-paced and sex-crazed; a wild ride for the protagonists and their fans.
From author Hart (Fallen, 2014, etc.) comes an erotic crime novel featuring an unlikely pair of heroes.
Though a commanding emergency room resident who states “I’m most at home in my scrubs,” Sloane is a young woman willing to prostitute herself for a night if it will help find her missing sister. Somewhat inexperienced, she finds sex with a stranger arousing: “I’ve never felt anything like this before. It feels…incredible.” The man behind the incredible experience is Zeth Mayfair. Working as muscle for a criminal organization run by an English rough named Charlie, Zeth is no stranger to violence. He is, however, not without his scruples. Alarmed that Charlie has begun trafficking in young women—as opposed to just drugs and other less objectionable crimes—Zeth is suspicious of his longtime boss. When a trip to the emergency room reunites Zeth and Sloane years after their initial encounter, the two embark on a quest, filled with erotic pauses, to find Sloane’s sister. Sexual, violent and swarming with biker gangs, trauma patients and a troubled girl named Lacey (as Zeth laments, “I’ve got fifteen minutes to get home before Lacey officially freaks the fuck out”), the story moves at top speed. Coercing the initially virginal Sloane into all sorts of acts ranging from public masturbation (“I am not masturbating in a public restroom, buddy!” Sloane initially insists) to explicitly described orgy attendance, the goal of finding Sloane’s sister tends to take a back seat to more X-rated scenes. While sections with gangsters can prove stereotypical; e.g., a Mexican gang lord asks, “Going somewhere, ese?” readers interested in myriad graphic bedroom activities will not be disappointed: Sloane and Zeth may hail from different backgrounds, but their combined erotic charge is irresistible.
Fast-paced and sex-crazed; a wild ride for the protagonists and their fans.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-0992597122
Page Count: 180
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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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