A whirl of a sweet story that serves as a solid bridge between installments of an unusually diverse contemporary romance...
An unusual romance between an asexual woman and a transgender man who find themselves thrown together during Toronto’s Pride Week.
In a rare impulsive move, Evie Whitmore decides to visit Toronto at the invitation of Gaybeard, aka Sarah, a friend she met in a Tumblr fandom. Evie plans to relocate to Toronto from England in a few months’ time to start her master’s degree and is curious about life in the Queen City. In a fairly thin plot, Evie winds up being partnered with Sarah’s friend Tyler to train for a dance contest during Toronto Pride. Despite a rocky start, which seems designed mostly to throw up an artificial barrier, Evie and Tyler share an irresistible magnetic draw. Over an intense week of training, as their comfort with the routine reflects their growing comfort together, they come to respect and like one another. Professional dancer Tyler, a biracial trans man, is in recovery from a toxic relationship, and novice Evie, who's asexual, or ace, is trying to figure out how to be her apolitical self in the midst of a group of committed queer activists. It's common in romance for dance to serve as a way to express feelings, but Tyler's choreography itself is fundamentally nonbinary (picture the famous scene in the film Dirty Dancing both with and without the gender roles reversed). In this, her second Toronto Connections novel (Blank Spaces, 2016), which stands alone but is even more effective as a sequel, Lennox continues to explore contemporary romance through the lenses of gender and sexual orientation. By portraying a mostly queer community, Lennox is able to center LBTQIA experiences in all their diversity. But, although Evie's sexual identity requires some explaining, these characters are not defined by their gender and sexual identities. Readers will enjoy getting to know Tyler and Evie as complex, whole persons.
A whirl of a sweet story that serves as a solid bridge between installments of an unusually diverse contemporary romance series.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62649-488-6
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Riptide
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may...
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.
Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fiancé, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She’s recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she’s done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can’t help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona’s life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.Pub Date: July 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-15657-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without...
Megaselling Roberts (River's End, 1999, etc.) goes to Napa Valley for the tale of an Italian-American family wine producers rocked by scandal and a series of murders.
Dynasty head Tereza Giambelli knows that her granddaughter Sophia is the only family member capable of running a multimillion-dollar wine business—and no one contradicts La Signora. It's just as well the lovely young woman is still single: Tereza has plans for her. The matriarch has recently married Eli MacMillan, the American founder of another famous wine company. Eli's grandson Tyler knows everything there is to know about producing wine, from the vineyard to the vat. Ruggedly handsome, intelligent and earthy, he's a perfect match for public-relations whiz Sophia—or so thinks Tereza. The two young people begin to work together; Tyler teaches Sophia the fine art of making wine and making love. But other family members hope to claim their share of the Giambelli fortune, and people start dying mysteriously, including Sophia's good-for-nothing father, Tony Avano. Long divorced from long-suffering Pilar Giambelli, Tony led an opulent, self-indulgent life that provides plenty of murder suspects. He might have been killed by the mob, or a jealous mistress, or his spoiled brother-in-law, Tereza's lazy son, who's produced a passel of brats with his foolish Italian wife in the hopes of making Tereza happy. Everyone has a motive, and nothing is what it seems, Sophia discovers, but Tyler stands by her. Then a bottle of tainted merlot kills a company exec. A tragic mishap caused by poisonous plants growing near the vines? Or deliberate product tampering intended to destroy the company? Sophia and Tyler will need to delve even deeper into the convoluted and sometimes unsavory history of the family and its three-generation business.
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without a hitch.Pub Date: March 19, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14712-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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