Disappointing execution of an intriguing Regency hook.
Through a series of misunderstandings and miscalculations, headstrong Lady Brenna Harrington propositions, seduces and weds Lord Richard Ellerby; can they overcome emotional and physical pitfalls to find happiness?
When Brenna mistakes Ellerby for a highwayman, she proposes to pay him to court her in order to appease her father, who’s determined to marry her off to an unpalatable choice. Ellerby, shocked but intrigued, sends her away then writes to her father to tell him of Brenna’s dangerous overture. Meanwhile, Richard is hunting for his beloved sister, convinced she’s eloped with a known womanizer. Brenna follows him on his trek to Scotland, determined to convince Richard to enter into a marriage of convenience. When she finds him in an inn, they are both overcome by an electric attraction and wind up sleeping together. This sets in motion a series of actions and reactions that see the couple ambivalently married, with an obstacle course of people, events and misperceptions designed to keep them apart physically and emotionally. Unfortunately, the plot zips from conflict to conflict without the emotionally satisfying exposition or textured dialogue that would allow the story to unfold. Also, the choices the two main characters make are occasionally so ridiculous that by the end of the book, we're not convinced we care what happens to them. (For instance, there is a female houseguest who continually disrespects Brenna and constantly throws herself at Richard, and neither of them ever demands that the irritating woman leave. When Brenna expresses her anger and distress over the distasteful behavior, Richard is shocked, simply shocked, that his wife could ever feel threatened by the other woman.) Smith is a smooth writer, and the book has an engaging beginning with an appealing series concept. But there are too many plot elements, and the complicated story is further bogged down by poor pacing and characterization, awkward construction and a jerky narrative that drops details that should be emotionally processed throughout the book, but which only gracelessly resurface when it’s apparently time to revisit them for the sake of the next strained plot twist.
Disappointing execution of an intriguing Regency hook.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-425-26065-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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