Overlong but generally amiable second from Irish author Kelly (Someone Like You, 2001).
Five heroines for the price of one.
Hope, the frazzled working mother of two, remembers when her husband Matt would rip off her clothes and make passionate love to her whenever they felt like it, not caring whether he’d be late to work. But now, with his demanding job in advertising and their two young children, they’re just barely getting by. Living in Bath is so expensive—and what about her needs? Suddenly Matt proposes that they all move to Redlion, a rural Irish hamlet, so he can write a great novel instead of selling his soul writing copy. Hope is charmed by the old-fashioned village, but not so sure about the chickens in her antiquated pantry. With wild clucking, segue to: Hope’s sister Sam, a hard-driving music exec who secretly yearns for a husband and baby for at least two minutes every day, when not whipping new acts into shape. She’s awfully tired and pale. Does Sam have fibroids or ovarian cancer? Many phone calls between London and Redlion ensue. Jump-cut to Virginia, a well-heeled widow from Dublin who’s moved to the village to get away from memories. She’s soon befriended by Mary-Kate, the pharmacist, a shrewd middle-aged spinster who knows about pretty much everything in Redlion. Back to London for the story of Nicole, a beautiful half-Indian 20-year-old who wants to be a pop star. Flashback: her granny was born in Redlion. Nicole gets the attention of Sam, who sets her on the road to fame and fortune while wondering silently why she bothers. But things are looking up: a great-looking, down-to-earth venture capitalist in faded jeans has just moved in next door. Could he be the man of Sam’s dreams? Back in Redlion, Hope must deal with the amorous attentions of a rakish Irish hotelier. Oh, dear. He just kissed her . . . and she seems to have kissed him back!
Overlong but generally amiable second from Irish author Kelly (Someone Like You, 2001).Pub Date: July 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-525-94739-6
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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