Amiable, lighthearted, though hardly distinguished from many another of like breed.
Roommates, romance, missed connections and the odd bit of sex make up this fairly predictable first work from British writer Anderson.
When Will shows up on Eve’s Edinburgh doorstep, she’s not exactly surprised, but she is concerned that Will isn’t where he’s supposed to be—that is, at his wedding. Having jilted his fiancée at the altar, he begs Eve for asylum, and, being best mates, she offers her spare futon. The temporary situation becomes permanent, though, since Will doesn’t want to live with his mum, and the house he shared with his fiancée is out of the question. So the two settle into a cozy life of fixing each other dinner and watching TV together—not so unlike a married couple. In fact, at about page ten it becomes apparent that the two will unite, the only question being when and how. There are some diversions, however: Eve has Ian, a prosperous if finicky lover who becomes increasingly jealous of Will’s presence. And there’s Poppy, the new assistant at the flower shop where Eve works. Will falls in lust with the perky girl and sets about wooing her, not very inventively, with flowers. The story skips along with a speedy comic pace as Will attempts to conquer the seemingly chaste Poppy, and as Eve struggles with her feelings for Ian (if she has any feelings for him). When Eve catches Ian kissing another woman, they break up, bringing to the forefront Eve’s hidden longing for the childish though fun-loving Will. Is it too late for romance to bloom between the old friends? It seems so when Eve and Ian reunite and plan marriage, but, to Anderson’s credit, the reader is kept guessing until the last page—when shocking revelations all around put things in their natural order.
Amiable, lighthearted, though hardly distinguished from many another of like breed.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-00-651448-0
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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
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
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