A solid Victorian romance with appealing characters that suffers somewhat from a lack of original beats.
First in a new Victorian series about three self-made London men, focusing on a beastly casino owner-cum-duke, the castle he inherited, and the shrewd, stubborn steward who doesn't want him to abandon it.
Nicholas Lyon is the ruthless and powerful owner of the most popular casino in London. Only some know he is also the second son of the late Duke of Tremayne, because he fled from violent abuse at the hands of his deranged father, spending his teen years on the streets. Everything Nicholas has, he earned, but a gnawing hunger for more persists. When his wastrel older brother dies, Nicholas inherits the title and returns reluctantly to Enderley Castle in Sussex. He plans to sell off the contents of the castle and lease the estate, never to return to the place that gave him his ghastly facial scar and still gives him night terrors. But the duke’s plans are imperiled when he meets his unexpectedly female—and attractive—steward, Mina Thorne. Nick is shocked "[to find] beauty in this blighted place.” For Mina, Enderley Castle is not only her livelihood, but her home and all she has ever known. She wants Nicholas to "see it differently, not as a burden but as an opportunity.” Their mutual attraction grows as they come to know each other. Carlyle (How to Woo a Wallflower, 2017) is less reliant than many of her peers on repressed desire and sexual situations to move the plot forward, instead focusing on friendship and romance, to good effect. Nicholas’ emotional confrontation with his buried past dominates the narrative, but Carlyle wisely makes room for Mina’s own arc, one in which she comes to question whether her devotion to Enderley is rooted not just in virtue, but also in fear of change. While the book is enjoyable, the author relies on too many popular tropes (the self-made aristocrat is especially overdone) without introducing fresh elements to compensate.
A solid Victorian romance with appealing characters that suffers somewhat from a lack of original beats.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285395-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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