A clever idea, filled with hip references and attitudes—but no new perspective on love or marriage.
From a husband-wife team specializing in relationship guides geared to African-Americans: a first fiction that itself reads much like a guide about what not to do—in romance and storytelling.
Taking turns in alternating chapters, Mikki and Randy spin out their story, although, even with the first-person narratives, their motivations seem a bit dim. Randy, in Paris for a few months on business, is thrilled when he hears of his promotion for good work done but frightened of his wife’s reaction when he tells her he’ll have to spend another few months in the City of Lights. Mikki, back at their home in Brooklyn and taking care of her thriving business as a bridal designer, resents Randy’s having left and will no doubt fume at an extension of his stay. Or so Randy thinks. Little does he know that Mikki has found her way into the arms of someone else, none other than Marcus, Randy's best friend. When Mikki goes to Paris to rekindle their relationship, the two barely get along, each hyperbolically blaming the other for minor transgressions. Back at home, Mikki continues her affair with Marcus (and Randy is no angel in Paris), certain she’s in love and ready for divorce. Intuitive enough to know his marriage is in trouble, Randy goes home and asks his best friend for advice. The road gets only more crooked from there on. The team's depiction of this tangled web (echoed in a subplot featuring Mikki’s adulterous father) is candid and uncompromising, though it falters in the endless repetition of scenes that do nothing to clarify the characters' behavior. Instead of elucidating, the alternate narratives simply read like bickering voices, deaf to any other, and consequently exhausting to listen to.
A clever idea, filled with hip references and attitudes—but no new perspective on love or marriage.Pub Date: March 4, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-94641-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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