Despite its unconventional tinkering with family trees, this romance remains lackluster and predictable.
Do bloodlines or love lines create the strongest, truest families?
The latest from prolific, multicultural romance writer Ray (With Just One Kiss, 2012, etc.) offers an intricately twisted family tree, lots of plot maneuverings, but few surprises. The book opens with young, unmarried Christine James giving birth. The father of her child is a no-good, married scoundrel, and her parents immediately give the boy up for adoption into a loving family. Fast forward 38 years. Dr. Cade Mathis is a tough, gruff, brilliant neurosurgeon. He is also gorgeous, as family advocate Dr. Sabrina Thomas quickly notices. Cade and Sabrina, of course, lock horns over Cade’s brusque treatment of a patient. Despite their antagonism, neither Cade nor Sabrina can stop thinking about the other. Adopted and raised by an emotionally abusive father, Cade has spent his whole life proving his worth to others and avoiding relationships. For the first time in his life, Cade begins to feel that he could love a woman. Sabrina herself survived a meth-addicted biological mother, who burned her so badly that Sabrina remains scarred with skin grafts. Adopted and raised by a loving, nurturing family, Sabrina has nevertheless shied away from men. Yet she cannot stop herself from pursuing Cade with picnic lunches in the cafeteria, bouquets of flowers, assurances of his worth, until he cannot resist her advances. Meanwhile, Sabrina’s best friend Kara is trying to escape her own disparaging mother, who demands all of her attention, all of her financial support, while offering only criticism in return. Could Tristan truly be interested in buying her paintings, or is her mother right that he is only interested in one thing? The romances proceed quickly until Kara’s mother goes one step too far and Sabrina’s mother makes a startling revelation.
Despite its unconventional tinkering with family trees, this romance remains lackluster and predictable.Pub Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-68162-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Griffin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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