No great shakes, but at least this one has bar fights, psycho exes, drug use and a constantly urinating dog to keep up...
The selfish sister of an uptight chick-lit heroine gets her own book.
In this sequel to 2003’s I Do (But I Don’t), which was made into a Lifetime TV movie, Lockwood gives the spotlight to the rebellious and irresponsible sister of Lauren, the wedding planner heroine of the previous book. When this one opens, black sheep Lily Crandell is on a plane to London, having left her rock-star husband Ted Dayton after finding him making out with an actress in a bar. So Lily’s hopping across the pond for some R&R with ex-boyfriend Carter (they are now strictly platonic). For Lily, ending it with Ted proved messy: Not only did she knee him in the crotch at the bar, resulting in an assault charge, but afterwards, she charged $40,000 to his credit card, advertised his cell and home phone numbers on a billboard and stole her sister’s passport in order to travel. As Lily repeatedly says, “I may, quite possibly, be a bad person.” But given the laundry list of unctuous offenses attributed to Ted, it’s unlikely that many readers will hold her occasionally deranged behavior against her; chalk it up to the spunk of a good Texas girl. London proves no less drama-ridden than Austin, with Lily landing right in the middle of a psychotic relationship between quailing Carter and his deranged stalker girlfriend (and boss). Although she’s trying to act responsibly for once (except for that whole losing-her-sister’s-passport thing), by staying well away from Ted and even volunteering at the hospital where Carter works, Lily lands back in the tabloids with little difficulty. Though occasionally bereft of imagination, Lockwood’s tale builds nicely to a slapstick finale—a marked improvement over her first time around.
No great shakes, but at least this one has bar fights, psycho exes, drug use and a constantly urinating dog to keep up reader morale.Pub Date: May 2, 2006
ISBN: 0-7434-9943-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Downtown Press/Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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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