Karasyov’s quartet of bratty heroines sorely lack likeability.
From Karasyov (Wolves in Chic Clothing, with Jill Kargman, 2005, etc.), a chatty novel about women who cheat.
As the sun rises over Pacific Palisades, a certain sameness pervades over the privileged residents—oh, the bore of school runs and salon days, the difficulty of squeezing in Pilates with the obligatory L.A. cocktail party. Four friends in their mid-30s are in a rut and agree to Victoria’s grand scheme for improving their lives: Each is giving herself a year to have an extramarital affair. Ironically, only Victoria’s husband is jerk enough to deserve the title of cuckold—all the others are nice enough guys. New-Agey Helen is married to Wesley, a mild-mannered British director who is too restrained for her. Preppy Bostonian Leelee is married to Brad, whose grave sin was to have lost his fortune in the dot.com bust, forcing Leelee to live an upper-middle-class life in a Palisades cottage while her friends inhabit mansions. Eliza loves Declan, but feels somehow underappreciated, and anyway, she’s always had a crush on movie star Tyler Trask (she’s a celebrity reporter with potential access to the heartthrob). It takes just a short conversation for Victoria to convince her friends to cheat (though why they all have to do it together is a bit unclear) and soon each lady is engaged in some extracurricular fun, husband and kids be damned. Bitchy Victoria is quickly in over her head—she’s chosen her husband’s business rival, a sadist threatening exposure if she tries to break it off. Eliza, meanwhile, is conflicted, not wanting to jeopardize her marriage, and spacey Helen wonders why she’s unfulfilled by her afternoon trysts. Only Leelee seems genuinely happy now that she’s hooked up with Jack, the man she’s been in love with since she was a teen. The affairs risk exposure at the hands of Anson Larrabee, local gossip columnist and blackmailer, ready to betray the women if he doesn’t get what he wants. But then he turns up dead.
Karasyov’s quartet of bratty heroines sorely lack likeability.Pub Date: June 26, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2690-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.
Brown (Mean Streak, 2014, etc.) ticks off the boxes that elevate her books to the bestseller lists in this sexy romantic thriller set in Texas.
Rock-jawed hero with a dark past: check. Strong-willed, beautiful woman who resists his charms: check. A Whitman’s Sampler of bad guys: check. And finally, a convoluted and not always plausible plot: check. In this latest outing, readers meet TV journalist Kerra Bailey, whose family was torn apart years ago by a hotel bombing that killed 197 people in Dallas. Just in time for the 25th anniversary, Kerra scores an interview with the notoriously private Maj. Trapper, who saved her life, among others, when he emerged from the blast to lead the survivors out of danger. There's an iconic, prizewinning photo of the major carrying a little girl from the wreckage, but the child has never been identified—until now, when Kerra goes public with the information that it was her. Just after they finish filming the interview in his home, the major is shot, and an injured Kerra escapes in the confusion. The major’s son, disgraced Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent John Trapper—a name M*A*S*H fans will appreciate—steps in, igniting a chain of events that leads to murder, intrigue, betrayal, and a series of dark revelations. As with most of Brown’s heroes and heroines, there’s palpable sexual tension between Trapper, whose taut rear occupies ample literary real estate, and Kerra, who when dealing with Trapper feels “like he’d lightly scratched her just below her bellybutton” when he’s not making her “pleasure points throb.” The complex plot plays out in a round of reveals that don’t always make a lot of sense, but that’s not why Brown’s fans read her books. They check in for the witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fluid writing. A master of her genre, Brown knows how to please her most ardent readers but relies too often on the same basic formula from novel to novel.
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4555-7210-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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