Lipman (Isabel’s Bed, 1995, etc.) again celebrates romance grounded in the real world as she wittily details love’s rout of prejudice by two young couples. Natalie Marx is the Jewish narrator of this good-humored tale of lovers of different faiths, who find happiness and even manage to be accepted by their initially not-so-happy parents. Natalie’s family, who live in Massachusetts, summered each year in the 1960s either at the beach or on the lakes; one summer, in response to an inquiry her mother addressed to the Inn at Lake Devine in Vermont, a letter came from the proprietor, Ingrid Berry, saying that their guests were all Gentiles. Young Natalie was both angry and intrigued. She finessed a summer in her teens at the Inn by befriending WASP Robin Fife, whom she met at a summer camp, and then found both the Fife family and the Inn bland and boring. Now in 1970s Boston, Natalie, training to be a chef after college, runs into Robin, who asks her to come to her wedding at the Inn: She’s marrying Nelson Berry, Ingrid’s eldest son. Natalie goes, and cooks up a storm as the families grieve after Robin is killed on her way to Vermont, then falls for Kris, the younger Berry son. Neither the Marxes nor the Berrys are pleased. But their biases are nicely balanced when Linette Feldman, whose family owns a kosher hotel in the Catskills, falls for Nelson Berry, and her parents have also to be brought round. Love wins out, of course, thanks to perseverance and good sense. An upbeat and amusing romp through what is usually a minefield, by a writer who deftly makes her points but never preaches. (Author tour)
Pub Date: June 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-679-45693-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998
A little uneven and with an abundance of detail that occasionally slows the pace, this is still an appealing story from a...
Nearly 20 years after bringing her serial-killer father to justice, a photographer begins to settle into a new life only to discover that a murderous stalker is after her—and may have been collecting his own victims along the way.
Just before her 12th birthday, Naomi Bowes followed her father into the woods and made the grim discovery that he was a serial killer, which sent him to jail for life. Naomi, her mother, and her brother, Mason, moved in with her uncle Seth and his partner, Harry, ultimately settling in New York City and changing their last name for anonymity. But her mother never quite recovered from her husband’s horrid influence, and the tragic aftermath of that relationship will have a long-lasting impact Naomi won’t recognize until she settles into a new home in Washington state and her past catches up with her in ominous ways. Thanks to new friends, a new lover, a rescue dog, and her FBI-agent brother, she might weather this dangerous situation, but discovering someone has been shadowing her formerly nomadic life gives her a new appreciation for her own strength, resilience, and many blessings. Naomi’s unique past makes her wary of strangers, so when she falls in love with a house and buys it, then is quickly enfolded into a group of new friends and, through them, meets the man of her dreams, she feels both embraced and nervous, but when her past threatens her and her new community, she knows she’s in the right place with the right people. Bestseller Roberts explores the experience of a serial killer’s family and, more subtly, the true natures of trust, friendship, and loyalty.
A little uneven and with an abundance of detail that occasionally slows the pace, this is still an appealing story from a romantic-suspense favorite.Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17516-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
With characters you care for, a smooth, engaging plot and an interesting reflection on values and success, romance/women’s...
Sonnet Romano has spent her adult years working hard to make a name for herself out in the real world, far away from her idyllic hometown, Willow Lake. But when life takes some unexpected turns, she may just realize that everything she’s been looking for is right back where she started.
Sonnet has checked off most of the big boxes on her "must-do-before-age-thirty" list, and she’s over-the-moon about her life in Manhattan, her job with UNESCO and the opportunities on the horizon from winning a prestigious international program fellowship. But everything comes to a screeching halt when she learns her newly married mother—who had Sonnet as a teenager and raised her as a single mom—is pregnant and sick. Forsaking the fellowship, Sonnet moves back to Willow Lake to be with her mother, risking disapproval from her father, who’s running for the U.S. Senate, and her fledgling boyfriend, who’s working on her father’s campaign. She accepts a job on a reality show being shot in the town, featuring an infamous female rapper and bunch of inner-city kids, and learns that her estranged best friend has been hired as the lead cameraman. Sonnet and Zach have been friends forever, but he is part of her past, and they are on different paths in life. Despite a sizzling newfound attraction between them, she wants her mom to get well, the baby to be born and the show to be wrapped, so she can get back to the city and her own fast track to the successful, prestigious future she’s always worked toward. But slowing down has a funny way of forcing Sonnet to take stock, and maybe her idea of a perfect life will alter with a little help from the old and new important people in her life and the picture-perfect town she grew up in.
With characters you care for, a smooth, engaging plot and an interesting reflection on values and success, romance/women’s fiction favorite Wiggs sends up another charming winner in the Lakeshore Chronicles series.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1384-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2012
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