Macomber (The Twelve Days of Christmas, 2016, etc.) offers the gift of a charming if predictable romance between a likable...
The holidays bring challenges for a New Orleans travel agent.
Jo Marie Early is looking for some innocent fun when she dresses in her roommate Kelly Beaumont’s starched white uniform for Mardi Gras. Instead, a trio of drunk revelers tries to lead her away from the French Quarter, claiming they know a secret shortcut to the festivities. The handsome stranger who rescues her has just time enough to plant a deep, passionate kiss on Jo Marie’s lips before he’s swept away by the crowd. She spends the fall searching fruitlessly for her dream man in between rounds of refereeing squabbles between her roommate and her brother, Mark, who’s a doctor at the same hospital where Kelly is a nurse. Thanksgiving brings what looks like a break in Jo Marie’s holiday doldrums: Mark tells her Kelly just got engaged to a distant cousin. Jo Marie is surprised: "New Orleans was full of Beaumonts, but none that Kelly had mentioned in particular." As fast as her mood rises, though, it comes crashing back down when she realizes that Andrew Beaumont, Kelly's fiance, is her mystery Mardi Gras man. Even worse, Kelly wants Jo Marie to come with her to every holiday party the Beaumonts plan to host in honor of the newly engaged couple. Jo Marie struggles to hide her feelings for Andrew and support her roommate’s new romance. But it looks as if Jo Marie’s Christmas will be the most miserable of all as she sees her dream man’s ring on Kelly’s finger while the three prepare for yet another fancy affair.
Macomber (The Twelve Days of Christmas, 2016, etc.) offers the gift of a charming if predictable romance between a likable heroine and her unlikely beau.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8652-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Pevear's informative introduction and numerous helpful explanatory notes help make this the essential Anna Karenina.
The husband-and-wife team who have given us refreshing English versions of Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Chekhov now present their lucid translation of Tolstoy's panoramic tale of adultery and society: a masterwork that may well be the greatest realistic novel ever written. It's a beautifully structured fiction, which contrasts the aristocratic world of two prominent families with the ideal utopian one dreamed by earnest Konstantin Levin (a virtual self-portrait). The characters of the enchanting Anna (a descendant of Flaubert's Emma Bovary and Fontane's Effi Briest, and forerunner of countless later literary heroines), the lover (Vronsky) who proves worthy of her indiscretion, her bloodless husband Karenin and ingenuous epicurean brother Stiva, among many others, are quite literally unforgettable. Perhaps the greatest virtue of this splendid translation is the skill with which it distinguishes the accents of Anna's romantic egoism from the spare narrative clarity with which a vast spectrum of Russian life is vividly portrayed.
Pevear's informative introduction and numerous helpful explanatory notes help make this the essential Anna Karenina.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-89478-8
Page Count: 864
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
PERSPECTIVES
Entertaining and unpredictable; Reid makes a compelling argument for happiness in every life.
Reid’s latest (After I Do, 2014, etc.) explores two parallel universes in which a young woman hopes to find her soul mate and change her life for the better.
After ending an affair with a married man, Hannah Martin is reunited with her high school sweetheart, Ethan, at a bar in Los Angeles. Should she go home with her friends and catch up with him later, or should they stay out and have another drink? It doesn’t seem like either decision would have earth-shattering consequences, but Reid has a knack for finding skeletons in unexpected closets. Two vastly different scenarios play out in alternating chapters: in one, Hannah and Ethan reconnect as if no time has passed; in the other, Hannah lands in the hospital alone after a freak accident that marks the first of many surprising plot twists. Hannah’s best friend, Gabby, believes in soul mates, and though Hannah has trouble making decisions—even when picking a snack from a vending machine—she and Gabby discover how their belief systems can alter their world as much as their choices. “Believing in fate is like living on cruise control,” Hannah says. What follows is a thoughtful analysis of free will versus fate in which Hannah finds that disasters can bring unexpected blessings, blessings can bring unexpected disasters, and that most people are willing to bring Hannah her favorite cinnamon rolls. “Because even when it looks like she’s made a terrible mistake,” Hannah’s mother observes, “things will always work out for Hannah.” The larger question becomes whether Hannah’s choices will ultimately affect her happiness—and it’s one that’s answered on a hopeful note as Hannah tries to do the right thing in every situation she faces.
Entertaining and unpredictable; Reid makes a compelling argument for happiness in every life.Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-7688-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Washington Square/Pocket
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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