Steel (Johnny Angel, p. 556) softens her style in this quiet, poignant romance, generally avoiding the glitzy excesses and...
Second-chance romance in a windswept beach town.
Ophélie, the French-born wife of an American physicist and inventor, struggles with depression after her husband and son die in a plane crash. Not that the marriage was perfect—far from it. Ted was a moody genius who did his damnedest to ignore 15-year-old Chad’s emotional problems and Ophélie’s timid complaints. At least she still has Philippa, her 11 year-old daughter, known as Pip, to console her, and group therapy to help her through what’s referred to delicately as “the grieving process” (yes, this is in California). When Pip, ignored in turn by her airhead babysitter, wanders the beach alone and meets an artist, Ophélie is frightened and comes to sudden life, fiercely scolding the man, who insists he meant no harm. Matt Bowles remembers his own daughter at that age, though his children are grown. He lost touch with them after a bitter divorce and his wife’s relocation to New Zealand. A likely story, thinks Ophélie, who is nonetheless drawn to the attractive painter. A relationship blossoms as they share life stories and walks on the beach with the family retriever and happy Pip. Ophélie is surprised to find joy again—but her best friend Andrea could have told her that. Andrea, a free spirit who loved and left many men, has finally settled down at 44, a blissful single mother to baby William, fathered by artificial insemination and an anonymous donor—these days, who cares? Not Ophélie, who dotes on the adorable tot. Eager to do something for others, she volunteers for a homeless outreach program and serves these lost souls with bravery and compassion. But a bitter betrayal awaits her, as the truth of little William’s parentage is revealed.
Steel (Johnny Angel, p. 556) softens her style in this quiet, poignant romance, generally avoiding the glitzy excesses and silly contrivances of some previous titles. Easy to read, easy to like.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-33630-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
A pleasant read with no major surprises, the novel profits from the author’s skill at illuminating the most profound (and...
An unexpected patrimony leads a young woman to love and family in this first installment of a new series by the beloved Regency romance author.
An orphanage in Bath has been Anna Snow's home since she was left there as a toddler by a shadowy figure. She is largely content with living and working there as a schoolteacher now, partly supported by an unknown benefactor’s stipend. Like her fellow orphans, though, she has always weaved stories of her origins, and the best one—wealth and status—suddenly comes true when she finds out that she is the daughter of the recently deceased Earl of Riverdale, born during a secret early marriage. Yet Anna, who learns that her name is Anastasia Westcott, longs most for familial affection, which seems impossible to gain from her newly discovered half siblings, who have been suddenly disinherited. Balogh (Unforgiven, 2016, etc.) specializes in romance novels that both accept the essential solitude of the human condition and offer love as a stalwart companion; here, Anna has Avery Archer, the Duke of Netherby, to help her in this balancing act. Netherby is an unusual romance hero in that he is a man of beauty with a physical stature that evokes Asian martial artists rather than the anachronistically muscled men often found in the subgenre. Anna is initially wary of his aura of refined nonchalance but finds him to be a true friend as she struggles to learn her aristocratic duties and searches for allies in her new role. Netherby is taken aback by his own attraction to the woman he had pegged as a rube but whose simplicity and dignity slowly amplify her loveliness in his eyes.
A pleasant read with no major surprises, the novel profits from the author’s skill at illuminating the most profound (and burdensome) of human desires—to love and be loved.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-47779-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Signet
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
McFarlane has created a very funny, very romantic story with deep emotional impact.
A jilted British attorney gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to a fauxmance with the office playboy.
Laurie Watkinson has a corporate law job she loves, dear friends, and Dan, her dependable live-in boyfriend who works in the same firm. When Dan sits her down one evening, Laurie expects anything but to hear him say he's moving out; and then to hear soon after that he has a new girlfriend. Hoping for a bit of revenge, newly single Laurie agrees to pose as “Phony Goddess” to “Greek God” Jamie Carter, her new colleague and a known “soulless womanizer.” Jamie is gorgeous and charming but needs to appear settled to secure a promotion, and he thinks earning the affection of Laurie, the firm’s “golden girl,” is the surest route. Jamie and Laurie are attracted to one another, make each other laugh, and, they learn, have childhood trauma in common. Jamie is a classic playboy felled by love who’s written endearingly and convincingly: “I scoffed at the idea anyone could make you see your life through new eyes and I’m so, so glad to be wrong.” Laurie’s intelligence and acerbic wit—especially as they relate to navigating English society as a woman of color—are strengths that can obscure uncomfortable feelings. Thanks to a selfish, absentee father, an unconventional mother, and, she now realizes, a partner who never encouraged her to grow as a person, Laurie puts her own desires last. Giving the novel an expanded palette beyond the romance, Laurie’s friendship with Jamie is just one of several changes in behavior and attitude that help her to regain a sense of her own agency and importance. McFarlane’s gift is writing romantic comedy that depicts a recognizable world—in this case, the culturally diverse world of young professionals in Manchester, England—without dimming the luster of shining moments of humor, love, and connection.
McFarlane has created a very funny, very romantic story with deep emotional impact.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-295850-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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