A revolutionary new perfume triggers romance, greed and financial intrigue in Margolis’ debut novel.
When aging film star Mona Burbank meets fast-talking entrepreneur Sam “Swifty” MacDonald at a glitzy party, a new business partnership is born. Mona owns the formula for Pulse, a revolutionary perfume with a secret time-released essence, and Swifty boasts the high-powered financial connections to bring the fragrance to the world. Among the cadre of Chicago-based investors is Mark LaSalle, who inexplicably invests in the deal despite having been “burned” by Swifty in the past. There’s also Eldon Howard, another financial heavy-hitter who eagerly invests in Pulse while hiding darker motives. Lured by Swifty’s irresistible sales pitch and incredible profit projections, investors plow full speed ahead with producing and promoting the perfume, despite having never met Mona in person or sampled Pulse firsthand. Anchored by vague business jargon, these are just a few of the implausible plot points hampering this potentially engaging novel. From New York to Paris to Vienna, the novel’s settings reflect the glamour and excess of the big money 1980s. Befitting the ’80s, the champagne continues to flow even as the perfume business spirals downward. Swifty’s outrageous spending puts the company in peril and shady Eldon Howard sues for control. Meanwhile, Mark LaSalle behaves like anything but an investment “legend,” as he struggles to make sense of Swifty’s endless financial “printouts.” In short, Wall Street would eat these guys for lunch. The most intriguing character, by far, is Mona, who hopes that Pulse will revitalize her film career and reconnect her with the fragrance’s creator, Pierre, a talented chemist with whom she had an affair a decade earlier. One wishes that Margolis had focused less on these bumbling financiers and more on the magnetic Mona, whose insights cut to the heart of the novel: “Fantasy at the fragrance counter, fantasy at the movies. We’re in the same business after all.” Despite plenty of twists and turns, this would-be financial thriller doesn’t add up.
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2000
ISBN: 978-0595132867
Page Count: 264
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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