A fun, sexy escape.
In this debut romance novel, a woman gets a new lease on life while managing four irresistible men training to become the world’s next singing sensation.
Renowned music entrepreneur Teddy Wilson has a vision that’s going to take the industry by storm: a multinational vocal group that combines pop and opera. But he needs a special kind of woman to manage his four talented, egotistical guys. Teddy’s longtime assistant, Harriet, knows just the person for the job: her niece Annie, a music teacher from Detroit who needs something new after losing her husband to cancer 18 months ago. Wounded, gorgeous, and plucky Annie charms Teddy and his singers, whom she aptly dubs Bel Homme (French for “beautiful man”). And she’s up for the challenge of keeping them focused and happy during a summer of intense rehearsals at Teddy’s estate in England, but she doesn’t anticipate falling in love. Though he won’t admit it, French superstar Gabriel Grenier joined the group for a fresh start, too. Already rich and famous, Gabriel is worn out, uninspired, and lonely. Drawn to each other instantly, Annie and Gabriel fight to control their urges, their pasts, and Teddy’s orders not to mix business with pleasure. Irish’s first book in a planned series delivers on many female fantasies: there’s a dreamy man with a sensitive side who knows how to please a woman (on top of a grand piano!), forbidden love, personal growth, even an all-expenses-paid makeover shopping spree. The story features few surprises and little shock factor in terms of plot (Gabriel’s big secret is far from scandalous), but readers will have fun anyway. Though the book opens with an abrupt, graphic description of Teddy receiving a sexual favor from an employee he’s about to fire, later sex scenes—built up slowly, between a couple worth caring about—are poetic and satisfying. Even Teddy gets a chance to redeem himself through a sweet, age-appropriate romance with Harriet. Readers will look forward to love stories involving Bel Homme’s other three eligible bachelors in future installations of the series.
A fun, sexy escape.Pub Date: May 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-942627-01-2
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Enoch Publications
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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