Plucky Czech socialite Katrinka Graham returns (For Love Alone—not reviewed)—this time juggling a fleet of hotels, a new marriage, a late pregnancy, a social life in St. Moritz, Palm Beach, New York, and London, a surly son, and a lethal ex-husband- -all of which give her only an occasional moment to mutter philosophically, ``Ay yi yi yi, what a world.'' Having finally rid herself of hateful Wasp spouse Adam Graham, lovely 43-year-old former model Katrinka settles down with her handsome, rich new husband—self-made newspaper magnate Mark van Hollen—in a freshly redecorated Manhattan townhouse complete with a nursery suite for their soon-to-arrive baby girl. Pregnant, in love, owner of a successful luxury hotel business and surrounded by affectionate high-society friends, Katrinka wishes only to share her happiness with the rest of the world, but, sadly, the rest of the world has other ideas. Ex-husband Adam, furious that Katrinka, who failed to bear him an heir, has so easily become pregnant with Mark, plots to destroy both her marriage and her husband's publishing empire. Katrinka, who has just located Christian Heller, the 23-year-old son she gave up for adoption when young and single in Czechoslovakia, is too busy showering Christian with a Mercedes, a Central Park West apartment, a job in Mark's company, and introductions to friends' children to note the warning signs in Adam's behavior—or, for that matter, in Christian's, as the brilliant but unsavory young man responds to her overtures with insults and betrayals. The world is filled with jackals, in short, and Katrinka and Mark must watch their step, steadfastly sticking by each other in the face of the boldfaced lies, media harassment, marital separations, SEC investigations, kidnapping, rape, blackmail, spontaneous cosmetic restructuring, and worse that come their way. Ay yi yi yi, what a world. Yet Trump's practical, optimistic heroine beguiles the reader even as her glitzy, international milieu dazzles and entertains.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-671-74371-6
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993
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
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
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