A peculiar and entertaining but messy beach adventure.
Two talented young surfers fall in love in the 1950s.
In the opening pages of this brief novel, readers meet Surfersam, a lifeguard with a passion for riding the waves. Surfersam likes teaching people to surf, but the lessons don’t always go as planned. Many newcomers to the sport do not realize how hard surfing actually is and how much physical effort it takes. But when Surfersam sees his latest client, he is blown away. Saltwatersally, as she calls herself, shows up for her first lesson in a string bikini “looking like some Goddess.” She wants to become the best female surfer in the world. And with 10 swimming trophies under her belt, athleticism is not an issue. It’s not long before Saltwatersally is mastering “beautiful nose rides and 360s pull outs” in the water. On land, Surfersam and Saltwatersally realize they are in love. The couple marry, and as their relationship blossoms, so does interest in surfing. Thanks in large part to a movie called Gulitt, “the whole world wanted to be surfers.” Although this popularity means new financial opportunities for skilled boarders like Surfersam and Saltwatersally, the ocean begins getting a little too crowded for comfort. What are two dedicated surfers to do? From the outset, Jackson’s story moves quickly and in a casual manner. Soon after Surfersam meets Saltwatersally and begins a fervent romance, the two are married and proud owners of a friendly dog named Wipeout. Though this breezy style keeps the tale intriguing, some off-kilter phrasings occur. As the book explains somewhat confusingly, the couple becomes famous “by people taking movies about of them so Surfersam no longer need to be a life guard because money was pouring in from the surfing shows and they were payed for interviews on TV.” The meaning of such sentiments may be comprehensible yet the prose is far from polished. Nevertheless, in later pages, this story takes a swift, strange, and enjoyable turn. In the end, there is no telling what might happen in the water.
A peculiar and entertaining but messy beach adventure.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-970066-36-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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