by Dan Carroll ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2013
A laudable depiction of life within civil unrest and a proficient setup for the trilogy’s conclusion.
In this sequel, wedded bliss for an engaged couple on San Cristobal may be wrecked by a revolutionary group with aspirations of taking over the island.
Former New York executive-turned-philanthropist Robbie Beaufort has a new life in the Caribbean with his fiancee, Julianna Miranda. But lately the couple have been distant with each another. Julianna’s legally married to Pedro, comatose, and on a gastrostomy tube from an injury rendered during a hurricane. Robbie doesn’t want a wedding with Pedro still in the picture but he has qualms about taking him off the feeding tube, unsure whether the man would suffer. This postpones both the marriage and the big house Robbie promised, sparking rancor from Julianna and her young daughter, Alba, who hates admitting to her private academy friends that she lives in the slum. Things take a turn for the better when Julianna believes she’s pregnant with the couple’s first child. But trouble is also close by, evidenced by recurring black flags. Robbie doesn’t initially put much credence in rumors that the flags belong to the Sandinas, South American revolutionaries. Unfortunately, the group sees Robbie as a threat, with his charity work appeasing slum residents and reducing the number of recruits in a potential revolt. Carroll (Slum, 2016, etc.) aptly establishes the slum: it’s imperfect but populated by good people, while the Black Hell is the undeveloped and precarious section to avoid. Much of the plot (perhaps too much) focuses on Robbie obsessed with Pedro’s predicament, even flying in an expert to verify the patient won’t feel anything if doctors pull the feeding tube. The Sandinas, however, are a slowly building menace: short, intermittent perspectives from the group preface a more aggressive strike that leaves death and destruction in its wake. There are few signs of tangible romance between often bickering Robbie and Julianna. But it’s a struggle both realistic and endearing, as they’re fighting to keep everyone in their family together and safe.
A laudable depiction of life within civil unrest and a proficient setup for the trilogy’s conclusion.Pub Date: April 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-300-88798-0
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Vanity Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
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
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