Chipper Cinderella tale for the modern woman.
Boring Brit remakes herself to snag a hubby and land a fortune.
Jessica Wild is anything but wild. It’s definitely all work and no play for this mousy ad executive, who keeps long hours at the office in an effort to pay off her debts and get ahead in the business world. Jessica, who was raised in a modest home by her surly grandmother, has always been self-reliant. As an adult, her serious nature has turned her into a serious loner. Her only pals are her flatmate and an aging dowager named Grace whom Jessica befriends at her grandmother’s nursing home. The dotty old granny adopts Jessica and encourages her to add some romance into her life. To please the pushy granny, Jessica invents a boyfriend and ends up having an imaginary elopement. When Grace dies, Jessica is shocked to find that she’s been left four million pounds in Grace’s will. But there’s a catch. The money is bequeathed to Jessica Milton (the surname of her imaginary husband). In order to get her inheritance check, Jessica decides to marry her boss, Anthony Milton, for his name. Only problem: Anthony has never expressed interest in her. Jessica and her flatmate dream up “Project Marriage”: a step-by-step plan to make Anthony fall in love with Jessica in 50 days. As Jessica gets closer to marching down the aisle, she starts to doubt her ability to marry solely for money. The book gets off to a smashing start, and throughout the tone is fresh and sassy. The tale briefly disappoints when Townley (The Hopeless Romantic’s Handbook, 2007, etc.) turns to the hackneyed makeover theme (all it takes is a good haircut, highlights and high heels to get a man). Yet despite a handful of all-too-familiar plot twists, Townley’s wit and zany characters make this a splendid read.
Chipper Cinderella tale for the modern woman.Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-345-49980-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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