Ho-hum.
Another lugubrious romance from Grayson, her third (The Observatory, 2000, etc.), set, once again, in Longwood Falls, New York.
Maybe it’s something in the water, but no one seems too happy in this upstate hamlet, especially not Casey Becket. Teacher. Wife. Mother of two. Is that all there is to life? About to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary with hubby Michael, she dreams obsessively of the man who got away years ago: Will Combray, a lean, sexy drifter—although the author feels obliged to point out primly that he wasn’t a “real vagrant.” Everything else about the mysterious stranger seemed deliciously real to an impressionable teenager like Casey, who was intrigued by his vague plans to be a writer someday and even more intrigued by his huge, throbbing motorcycle. Though Casey had expected to marry Michael, the boy next door, Will’s catlike gray eyes and passionate lovemaking thrilled her no end. Too bad he left her at the altar without a word of farewell. Fortunately, she wasn’t pregnant. Unfortunately, her parents were killed in a car crash soon after. Noble Michael married the devastated girl, and turned out to be a peach. But this skilled woodworker, loving mate, and tender, funny father isn’t quite good enough for self-absorbed Casey. When Will turns up unexpectedly amidst preparations for their anniversary fête, telling her that he’s been married and divorced twice, she’s flabbergasted. Apparently he never stopped thinking about her! And his meteoric rise from bank underling to wealthy San Francisco venture capitalist wows her too—it’s not long before she’s swooning in his arms. But when she discovers the real reason he ditched her the night before their wedding, Casey thinks twice.
Ho-hum.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-018486-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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