Long on exposition, short on character, and sketchy, with a French setting as Gallic as Cheez-Whiz. Even diehard fans of the...
Steel (Lone Eagle, p. 140, etc.) proves you can go home again—provided you have $10 million.
Marie-Ange is the youngest child of French beauty Francois and WWII soldier John Hawkes. Parachuted behind the German lines, John found himself hung in a tree with a broken leg until Françoise rescued him. A practical Frenchwoman never wastes a handsome man, and so she persuaded her parents to hide him. After the Allies liberated France, the two married; John bought a wine business and Château de Marmouton; and the couple prospered—along with their two lovely children, Robert and Marie-Ange, who followed. The family led a charmed life until tragedy struck: John, Françoise, and Robert were killed in an accident, and the 11-year-old Marie-Ange was sent to the US to her sole surviving relative, her great-aunt Carole. Carole was mean, grasping, and weird, though she got around her Iowa farm plenty fast for someone in a wheelchair, and did her utmost to make Marie-Ange’s life hell, selling her little smocked dresses to a thrift store and waving a shotgun at anyone who dared to visit. But the lonely girl found a true friend in Billy Parker, a good-as-gold farmboy. They grew up. And then, when Marie is 21, a lawyer finally informs her that the trust fund her parents left is now worth over $10 million. She returns to Château de Marmouton, by this time owned by the suave and handsome Comte Bernard de Beauchamp. They eventually marry, also have two lovely children, and also lead an idyllic life—until a mysterious woman tells Marie-Ange a wild tale of attempted murder, arson, and infanticide. Are Marie-Ange and her children in danger? Is Bernard so deeply in debt that he’d do anything, even kill, to extricate himself? Will good old Billy Parker be waiting in the wings to help her figure it all out?
Long on exposition, short on character, and sketchy, with a French setting as Gallic as Cheez-Whiz. Even diehard fans of the megaselling Steel may find it thin.Pub Date: June 12, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-33296-3
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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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