Adler (Sooner or Later, 1997, etc.) may have moved from cream-stuffed romance to sensuously creamy suspense, but she’s still heavy on the gardenia scent and crushed velvet. Retired New Orleans homicide detective Al Giraud is now a private investigator in L.A., where law professor and ex-DA Marla Cwitowitz falls for him and decides she wants to be a p.i. too—Al’s partner, in fact. The couple trade a ton of martinis and Nick-and-Nora sexual badinage, but never in a Dashiell Hammett mystery does a tanned p.i. wear an “ankle-length silk jersey skirt slit to the thigh, and a tiny white chiffon top embroidered with pale green butterflies.— In a La Jolla bar, Al and Marla see Laurie Martin, a tall, unmarried, blond realtor with good legs and a gold snake ring, pushing a Laguna Beach seaside house on electronics executive Steve Mallard. He may be married, but Mallard looks like a dead duck after dining with Laurie for two weeks in a fruitless search for the right house. When Laurie disappears and her car is found with blood on the backseat, Steve is the prime suspect. He hires Al and Marla to find Laurie’s missing body and exonerate him. Later, dogs sniff out a body at the bottom of a canyon near where the bloody car was found. What tie did or does Laurie Martin have to Bonnie Victor, other than owning the same dog? Is Laurie Martin even Laurie Martin? When Marla and Steve’s wife, Vickie, are attacked with a knife in the Mallards— kitchen, will Vickie emerge from the resulting coma? The climax is a literal cliffhanger—presumably because villains no longer tie heroines to the railroad tracks. Call this film noir on silk sheets.
Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-33380-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A poignant and skillfully crafted second-chance romance.
A father’s request leads a soldier back to his hometown and the woman he thought he’d lost forever in Yarros’ (The Last Letter, 2019, etc.) novel.
Growing up in the small town of Alba, Colorado, Camden “Cam” Daniels had a reputation as a troublemaker. After high school, he became a Green Beret and inspired his brother, Sullivan, to join the Army. When a split-second decision on the battlefield ends with Sullivan’s death, the dead soldier’s father, Arthur, and the town of Alba can’t forgive Cam. Six years later, however, Cam receives a voicemail message from his father. At 58, Arthur is dealing with the devastating effects of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and wants Cam to help him get the “do not resuscitate” order opposed by his elder son, Alexander, known as “Xander,” who’s become Alba’s mayor. Cam returns to Alba and encounters Willow Bradley, his childhood friend and Sullivan’s former girlfriend. He loves Willow but didn’t reveal it after she began dating his brother, and he’s unaware that she loves him, too. To garner support for his father’s case, Cam works with Willow to turn Alba’s historic Rose Rowan Mine into a tourist attraction, and their rekindled friendship turns passionate. But Cam wonders if their relationship can survive the pressures of his father’s court case and the town’s scrutiny. In chapters that alternate between Cam’s and Willow’s first-person perspectives, the romance develops at a slow burn as the couple struggles to make peace with Cam’s guilt over Sullivan’s death and other issues. Although their relationship is the heart of the novel, Cam’s efforts to help his father and resolve their troubled past form a well-developed subplot as he and his brother prepare to face off in court. A gifted storyteller, Yarros captures well the rhythms of life in a once thriving town, and her book succeeds as both a contemporary romance and a sensitively observed story of a son trying to reconnect with his estranged father before it is too late.
A poignant and skillfully crafted second-chance romance.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64063-816-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Complications abound in this well-crafted, light holiday romance.
Talented baker Polly Waterford doesn’t know what to do when her best friend, Kerensa, swears her to secrecy. Kerensa’s drunken one-night stand may jeopardize not only her pregnancy, but also her marriage, not to mention Polly’s engagement to Huckle.
Fans of Colgan's (The Café by the Sea, 2017, etc.) Mount Polbearne stories will delight—and new fans will find an easy, charming entry into the saga—as Polly, Huckle, and Neil (the puffin) return for the Christmas season. Having survived the dissolution of her graphic design business, Polly is now happily ensconced with Huckle, whose honey business is not yet thriving, in the historic lighthouse they bought in the sweet Cornish village (practically an island) whose only road to civilization is submerged under the sea twice each day. As the yuletide season approaches, however, Polly must face a bewildering number of obstacles. Is she ready to marry Huckle? Is she ready to start a family? How can she know when her own father abandoned her before she was even born? How can she give up an entire day’s profits to the Mount Polbearne Christmas fair? How can she save the endangered puffin sanctuary? How will she ever bake enough for the fair plus cater a huge holiday party for Kerensa and her fabulously wealthy husband, Reuben? And how will Kerensa ever survive Reuben’s wrath if the baby turns out not to be his but some 6-foot-4 Brazilian man’s? Supported by the ever faithful Huckle and Neil's endearing eeps, Polly carries on from the cozy bed in the icy lighthouse, trailing flour and knishes wherever she goes. Keeping secrets, pleasing everyone, and balancing so many jobs keeps Polly busy—that is, until a massive winter storm threatens everything.
Complications abound in this well-crafted, light holiday romance.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-266299-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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