Pure fun and pure fluff—the perfect book to read on the beach with a glass of prosecco in hand.
A lighthearted romance packed with glitz, glamour, and celebrities.
Charlotte Young, a bold, plucky American woman working in public relations in New York City, has planned a reunion ski trip to Chamonix, France, with four of her best friends from her time at Oxford University. The girls are already excited about their getaway, but the trip gets even more thrilling when they learn that Des Bannerman, a dreamy, British romantic-comedy movie star, is in town, too. Charlotte has long considered him to be her celebrity crush, so she becomes determined to meet him. Luckily, she runs into him at a local casino’s blackjack tables; they eventually share a few fun, flirtatious moments (and even a kiss). However, things go awry when the paparazzi snap a photo of the duo and Des’ girlfriend, Brynn Roberts, sees it. She’s not happy, and she lets Charlotte know it. Suddenly, photographers are following Charlotte everywhere; then, out of the blue, she’s served with a restraining order from Des, requiring her to keep her distance. Hurt and confused, she returns home to New York, where her boss, Faith Clarkson, is determined to make the most of her employee’s brief foray into the limelight. She assigns Charlotte one vital task: to figure out a way to sign Des as a client of the PR firm. Now she must plot how to get around her restraining order (and her hurt feelings) while making new friends, taking a new lover, and having countless glamorous adventures along the way. Kennedy’s (Cognac & Couture, 2016, etc.) book is pure lighthearted fun—the kind of story that one can imagine as a glossy rom-com film. It’s packed with entertaining, vivid descriptions of some of the world’s most luxurious destinations, including the aforementioned Chamonix and Manhattan; Long Island’s East Hampton; London; Saint-Tropez, France; and Rome. It’s also filled with steamy, if gratuitous, sex scenes between Charlotte and her lover, Liam, a “gorgeous Irishman.” Although there’s no real lesson or message to be gleaned from this novel’s light plot, it’s escapism at its best.
Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-71076-0
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Girl Parts Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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