Romance, edginess, and the paranormal come together in a cohesive and engaging tale.
A witch regains her magic and reunites with her vampire mate while both are threatened by external forces in Crescent’s (The Last Marine, 2015, etc.) romantic fantasy.
When Lilith Caldwell receives an unsigned note telling her, “The future lies in the past. Go home. It is time,” she eventually succumbs and returns to the childhood house she inherited. This is the same place where, two decades ago, a young Lilith called for her “mate” to save her from her grandmother’s beatings, and vampire-daemon James answered. Present-day Lilith, at her old home, tries to rid herself of a dark entity that seems to be attached to her—one that she’s dubbed “Aimee.” But there are surprises in the house: James is squatting there, and the magical power that she lost, likely due to Aimee, returns. James, a Guardian for the Watchers (a group of fallen angels), normally has a mission to assassinate any being that would threaten the balance of good and evil, but the Watchers demand he protect Lilith instead. The witch and vampire are drawn to each other, but, with various menaces looming, their newfound romance isn’t the only thing at stake. Julius Crowley of the Vampiric Council is searching for Lilith, certain that she’s a threat to all Guardians. Meanwhile, Rowena, the High Priestess of Lilith’s former coven, may have a way to decimate all daemonkind. Crescent’s novel deftly blends elements of erotica and fantasy. The inevitable sex scenes between the two main characters, though explicit, often thrive on tension, as James’ technique is deliberately slow and diligent, and the two take turns as the dominant partner. Nevertheless, the narrative is even stronger as a thriller, as it’s rife with mystery (with over 100 Guardians having gone missing in a month) and a dense back story that draws on multiple religions. Most readers will be unsurprised by the plot turns in the final act, but the confrontations between formidable characters (including the spellcasting Lilith) are thoroughly satisfying. The book also ends with a rousing setup for a planned second volume in a trilogy.
Romance, edginess, and the paranormal come together in a cohesive and engaging tale.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9971872-3-6
Page Count: 362
Publisher: Cara Crescent Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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