Going along with the current trend, second-tier romancer Norman (The Key to Susanna, 1996, etc.) has added mystery to her politely competent brand of ladies' fiction. Norman's theme: A friend in need is a friend indeed. Three teenagers make a pact after their parents are killed in a helicopter crash in England on July 4, 1976. Just like a real family, they will never abandon one another in desperate times, no matter what. The first to find herself in dire straits is Annie Aldrich Thomas, who marries and attempts to become a perfect wife and mother in a small English village. Burdened with responsibilities, she begins to take Valium, eventually becoming an addict. Her friends help her kick the drug while she's holed up in a Swiss apartment with a gorgeous Swiss-Italian doctor. The second troubled buddy is Jamie Arias, the rich and handsome descendant of an aristocratic Spanish family. Jamie, the brilliant head of an ad agency, makes a bad marriage to the beautiful Carrie, who makes his life miserable and then threatens to expose Annie's addiction. With what seems an unlimited amount of money, Annie and the third friend, Olivia Segal, plot to humiliate Carrie by involving her in an advertising scam. Finally, Olivia also calls on her friends when she discovers that she's being stalked by a dangerous man in black. Olivia has discovered letters and a diary kept by her father that implicate Jamie's dead uncle Juan Luis in a plot to steal an important art collection from a Jewish family living in Nazi Germany. Though Juan Luis had promised to help the family escape, he had betrayed them. His crimes may even have led to the murder of the trio's parents. Jamie and Olivia eventually fall in love, and, of course, the three friends outwit the stalker. While Norman may not scintillate, she's learned to shape a plot (and drop expensive brand names) with increasing self-assurance.
Pub Date: June 10, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-94256-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997
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
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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