Debut author Karell offers a story about a steamy love affair between a young, talented lawyer and an ill-fated actress.
Cynthia “Mimi” Jamison meets with tragedy in the very first chapter of this novel. The troubled actress, whose career was marred by poor choices and pornography, falls asleep at the wheel of her car and dies in an accident in 1979. More than 30 years later, attorney Karl Cerelli is divorced, depressed and obsessed with Mimi’s short career. He visits a psychic who puts him under hypnosis, and he’s flung back in time to 1978 Los Angeles, where he plans to fall in love with Mimi—and change fate. They meet at a party at a thinly veiled stand-in for the Playboy mansion. Mimi, after posing nude for Bachelor magazine, has collected a menagerie of abusive, uncaring boyfriends, but after she and Karl spend one lusty night together, their lives are forever entwined. Karl whisks her away for a luxurious, sex-filled week in Lake Tahoe, but as the week winds down, Karl finds Mimi’s stash of heroin, and their love quickly sours. Mimi returns to her dealer and ex-boyfriend, and Karl tries to distract himself with other sexual romps and an exciting job offer in Atlanta. He returns to LA to find Mimi on his doorstep, and they give it another go, despite Karl’s appalled family and friends. When a drug binge costs Mimi an important audition, however, the relationship is back on the rocks. After some yelling, some sex and a big engagement ring, Karl thinks all is well, only to come home one day to find Mimi gone. He leaves for Atlanta, but Mimi returns to him one final time. Later, post-hypnosis, present-day Karl tries to process the love affair as the novel draws to a confusing, violent end. Mimi and Karl’s rollercoaster relationship is an entertaining fantasy, and the sexual revolution suffuses the novel’s late-1970s California setting. However, it can be exhausting to watch Karl try to save Mimi from herself over and over again, and heartbreaking to see Mimi’s success repeatedly decided by men, and not herself. The bedroom scenes are rather explicit and only a few steps up from romance-novel formula. However, the novel’s engaging secondary characters, particularly wild Southern belle Deborah and Karl’s friend Bill, add realism to an otherwise two-dimensional story.
Fans of Larry Flynt–era fiction will likely be entertained by this melodramatic tale of sex, decadence and codependency.
Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1496037039
Page Count: 300
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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