Not as dramatic or heart-wrenching as it intends to be but still a warmhearted and romantic read.
Allison Lane swings into Sweet, Texas, when her father gets engaged to a woman he’s just met; she doesn’t expect to find a family who embraces her as their own or a man who might make her believe in love.
After finally extricating himself from a horrible marriage to her mother, Allison’s father is engaged again. As an event planner, Allison has seen too many couples fail after the wedding, and her parents’ long-lasting marriage was hellish enough to make her question the institution. So when she visits the small Texas town her father moved to, she expects to find another self-centered, money-hungry gold digger. Instead, she meets down-to-earth Jana Wilder and her sexy sons—including veterinarian Jesse, the brother with the wildest reputation. Jesse has paid lip service to swearing off relationships, but he knows he wants to settle down someday. And someday might be right around the corner if he can convince the luscious Allison to overcome her own distrust of love; that possibility seems ever closer when Allison decides to stay in Sweet to help his brother Reno plan his obstacle-plagued wedding. Allison grows closer to the Wilders, begins to fall for Jesse and has started to work through her own inhibitions when disaster strikes in the only relationship she ever had faith in. Well-written and sweetly seductive, the romance is a fun and touching read. None of the conflict ever builds to truly believable tension, and though author Terry tries to persuade us that Allison’s resistance to relationships is justified, we aren’t completely convinced. Nor does Jesse’s big reveal justify his long-standing angst, though that back story is also moving.
Not as dramatic or heart-wrenching as it intends to be but still a warmhearted and romantic read.Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-223726-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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