Another tame romance with a tax-deductible foreign locale from Adler, who knocks them out industriously (Last Time I Saw...
Forlorn ER doc learns to love again under Italy’s sunny skies.
Gemma Jericho works long hours at Bellevue when not fretting over her daughter Livvie. New York is a tough city to raise a teenager in, but fortunately Gemma’s staunch little Italian mama is still around to help them both, dishing up pasta and advice. Gemma isn’t looking for love, mind you—not since Cash Drummond, a gorgeous blond actor and great guy, isn’t around anymore. No replacements for him? Take a trip to Tuscany with the Jerichos and find out. Nonna has inherited a villa, though the title is in dispute and there’s some wrangling over a will. No matter. The Jerichos are charmed by all they see, soothed by the balmy breezes and relaxed life. Then Gemma meets Ben Raphael, handsome Bronx-born property developer and self-made man, also vacationing with his young daughter Muffie. Ben is intelligent, sexy, patient, and kind—with exactly the right amount of manly hair on his muscular forearms. Surely he’ll melt Gemma’s frozen heart and find out why she swore she would never love again. But, first, there are shopping, sightseeing, and café-visiting to be done. Will Nonna fall for the earthy wooing of the sturdy peasant who likes her so much? Perhaps, if she doesn’t have a heart attack first and spoil Gemma’s budding romance (Nonna has concealed a congenital heart defect so Gemma won’t worry). Ben finally learns Gemma’s secret: Cash was brought into the ER where she was then working, mortally wounded from a car crash. Had Cash been on his way to see her, and has she been eaten with guilt for years because of that? Ah, but the love of a good man will let her to move on at last.
Another tame romance with a tax-deductible foreign locale from Adler, who knocks them out industriously (Last Time I Saw Paris, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-26996-X
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal...
A gumbo seasoned with ghosts, love, and murder on the bayou.
When 30-something Declan Fitzgerald of Boston, a successful lawyer and a member of a large and loving family, breaks off his engagement to very suitable Jessica, he knows he needs to change his life. Lawyering is not fun anymore, so, recalling Manet Hall, an old deserted plantation house he once visited with law school classmate and New Orleans native Remy, he buys the property and moves down south. Declan is also a gifted craftsman, a born decorator, and very, very rich. Soon, he meets beautiful Lena, who’s visiting her grandmother Odette, Declan’s friendly Cajun neighbor. Declan is as certain that Lena is destined to be his wife as he was that Manet Hall would become his home. But, surprise, Lena has a troubled past (like the house) and is determined to resist Declan’s courtship. While he suits Lena and works on the place, Declan experiences troubling dreams. It seems he’s actually reliving the novel’s parallel story, which took place in 1899. In that year, the maid, Abbey Manet (from whom Lena, coincidentally, is descended, and who married wealthy Lucian Manet), was raped and murdered by her brother-in-law Julian as she nursed her baby daughter. Her body was dumped into the bayou by her mother-in-law, who despised her. And grief-stricken husband Lucian, away at the time, being told that Abbey had run off, committed suicide. Now, in an unconvincing twist of gender and reincarnation, it’s Declan who hears a baby crying , experiences childbirth and rape as the reincarnation of Abbey, while Lena is Lucian. The two accept all this with equanimity, and, Manet Hall’s secrets revealed, it becomes the setting for predictable and much foreshadowed resolutions.
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal fans will enjoy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14824-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may...
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.
Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fiancé, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She’s recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she’s done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can’t help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona’s life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.Pub Date: July 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-15657-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
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