Often laugh-out-loud funny, Kirkus editor Szewczyk’s well-observed debut is a quirky, perverse take on dating that easily...
A magical one-night stand with a strapping South African wildlife ranger has unexpected consequences in this screwball rom-com with a winningly sardonic heroine.
Still smarting from a humiliating Valentine’s Day breakup with lying louse Richard, literary agency assistant Kas Sienkiewicz has just about had it with guys when she agrees to join pals Max and Libby on a deluxe African safari courtesy of Max’s rich father. Her resolve is tested mightily when she sets eyes on the clock-stopping vision of hotness who just happens to be their guide at the Akuji Game Reserve. Blue-eyed, 6’4” William is gracious, friendly and, to the startled delight of self-deprecating Kas, actually seems to fancy her. On their last night at the reserve, goaded by Max and Libby, she invites William up to her chalet for an evening she hopes at the very least will be a fine memory. Back home in Manhattan, she is stunned to receive a semi-literate email from William; he’s lost his job for sleeping with Kas and is now headed to New York to seek his fortune. Also, he loves her and wants to stay with her. Before she has time to sort out this new turn of events, William has arrived. The cute ranger uniform has been replaced by a series of brightly colored track suits and a tasseled fez he claims helps “inspire” him to work on his lifelong dream: a nonfiction treatise on the political situation in Monaco. The fact that he can barely spell matters not to confident William, prompting Kas to wonder if he is a moron, or just an innocent abroad. Either way, around the time he installs a waterbed in her tiny apartment she realizes that she must find a way to get him out. Meanwhile, she finds herself intrigued by a new client whose witty novel is right up her alley.
Often laugh-out-loud funny, Kirkus editor Szewczyk’s well-observed debut is a quirky, perverse take on dating that easily rises above the singleton genre competition.Pub Date: July 24, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-58247-6
Page Count: 324
Publisher: 5 Spot/Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
