Set in the Victorian era, Wigginton’s first novel centers around Angelina, a fiercely independent woman who does not care for societal norms that confine women.
Angelina is unimpressed with the shortsighted goal of her peers—to get married. She says, “Let’s be clear, I like fashionable clothes and shoes as much as the next girl. But really, does the whole lot of them care for nothing more than making a good match and bringing more children into this world? One might think that a woman is good for nothing more than sitting around and looking pretty.” Angelina is an interesting combination of sophisticated and scrappy. She can charm with wit and grace as she navigates the upper echelons of society or defend herself against thieves and thugs with a dagger. She meets her match in Jude Deveraux, a captain of French privateers. They first meet when he boards her uncle’s ship with plans to pillage. He appreciates her boldness and she, his occasional tenderness, not to mention his rugged good looks. It is a romance novel after all. They fall in love, and some rather steamy scenes ensue. The novel twists and turns and includes persistent bad guys with connections to pagan rituals and human sacrifice. While Angelina is an intelligent, tough-minded lead, she ultimately seems to follow in the footsteps of those very peers she disrespects. Perhaps her saving grace is that her decisions are made mindfully. Stylistically, the novel is somewhat inconsistent. In her narration, Angelina can be quite modern, while the dialogue is Victorian-esque. Also, character development could be tightened; some seem to evolve too quickly. For example, Angelina’s best friend Sarah recovers from a traumatic event with one quick talk, never to speak of it again. Still, these hiccups do not take much away from a fun, engaging fantasy.
Save for a rainy day and escape into this suspenseful, bodice-ripping romp.
Pub Date: June 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499038996
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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