A disappointing effort.
An ex-Marine raising his daughter with the help of his two best friends meets the perfect nanny for his daughter, but when their mutual attraction creates tension in their business relationship, he’s not sure how to handle it.
Collin Montgomery didn’t expect to leave the Marine Corps to raise his infant daughter, Chloe, but after his girlfriend dies in an accident, he’s left with little choice and is grateful when his two Marine buddies Max and Gavin come with him to help. Their odd work schedules make it hard to have someone on call all the time, especially after Collin’s sister, Lia, gets a new job that leaves her unable to fill the gaps. Lia introduces him to Addison, a currently unemployed preschool teacher who’d make a perfect nanny. Unfortunately Addison and Collin have already met at a bar, a meeting that was out of character for both of them and left them with really bad first impressions, so their ability to form a positive working relationship is in question and is hindered further by a smoldering yet unwelcome attraction. But when her desperation for a job matches his desperation for child care, they meet in the middle, learn to respect each other, and then become a couple—but they are continually burdened by their insecurities and personal wounds. Debut author Van Fleet starts with an interesting concept, “Three Marines and a Baby,” and creates a set of characters who should be sexy and just flawed enough to make readers root for them but instead makes them immature, annoying, and so incapable of communicating in even the simplest ways that one wonders why they care about each other, much less why the reader should care about them. There's way too much fighting, jealousy, and misunderstandings that could be easily untangled if the characters would simply talk to each other; in other words, too much of the wrong kind of conflict to sustain a novel.
A disappointing effort.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3716-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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