A breezy, appealing, and sexy love story.
A medical emergency leads to an unexpected chance at romance for an outgoing Hollywood starlet and a reserved doctor in this novel.
Singer and dancer Annabelle Montclare lives for the spotlight. She gained fame for her provocative music and videos and her outspoken persona. Her career means everything to her, and she puts her drive to succeed ahead of her health. Everything changes when she is hospitalized with a ruptured ovarian cyst. Her operation is a success thanks to her surgeon, Warren Fitzgerald. Despite the circumstances, Annabelle finds Warren handsome but “a hard nut to crack.” During her follow-up appointments, she engages in teasing repartee with him, but when she asks him to dinner, he ends their professional relationship and refers her to another physician. Months later, Annabelle and Warren reconnect and realize that they share a mutual attraction. But he is concerned about Annabelle’s youth and the fact that they are at “disparate stages of life.” As their relationship deepens, Annabelle lands a role in a major film, and Warren discovers the public scrutiny that comes with dating a controversial entertainer. Warren is captivated by the effervescent Annabelle, and she sees a future with the dashing doctor, but a series of personal and professional pressures causes the couple to wonder whether their relationship can withstand the glare of the Hollywood spotlight. Famous’ (Love & Candy, 2013, etc.) novel is a spirited contemporary romance that features dynamic characters, witty dialogue, and a lively plot brimming with twists and turns. Annabelle and Warren are well-developed protagonists whose relationship develops gradually as their droll banter evolves into a passionate and life-changing connection. One of the tale’s strongest elements is the way the author adeptly balances the playful and erotic aspects of their relationship through snappy exchanges that reflect their chemistry (He: “Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re being sincere or not.” She: “Just assume I’m never for real.” He: “But then there’s the whole metalevel where you joke about whether or not you’re joking”). The story moves at a brisk pace, enhanced by subplots involving Annabelle’s burgeoning acting career and Warren’s adjustment to dating a celebrity. That said, the editing is inconsistent at times. For example, a roadie is described as carrying a “base guitar” instead of a bass guitar, and Annabelle’s gynecologist’s name is given as both “Dr. Loo” and “Dr. Lo.”
A breezy, appealing, and sexy love story.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 255
Publisher: The Miri Group
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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