A highly charged romance with plenty of intrigue and danger.
Ady’s debut novel explores the intricacies of moving on from an abusive marriage.
As the story opens, Taya Logan is having a paralyzing nightmare—one of many stemming from the domestic abuse she endured at the hands of her violent husband, Nate, whom she escaped months ago. Soon after her return to Chicago from Italy, she meets and becomes smitten with entrepreneur Jonathen Tate, “Chicago’s top successful bachelor,” and he soon falls for her. He recently experienced a bitter divorce, but he’s anxious to rediscover love and commitment, and he quickly considers Taya to be “a drug I’m addicted to....One, I can’t get enough of.” However, the threat of Taya’s abusive spouse is ever present, and when Nate eventually appears, the melodrama hits its highest notes. Readers will be swept up in Ady’s suspenseful narrative right from the start, and the author does an impressive job of getting inside Nate’s mind as well, showing him to be a very troubled, very powerful, and highly manipulative man. Things get more complicated when Jonathen’s ex-wife, who also has ties to Nate, joins the fray. Ady’s prose, as filtered through Taya’s and Jonathen’s alternating perspectives, can be lushly evocative, but it’s sometimes awash in adverbs, overly expository, and excessively descriptive. Although the novel as a whole is somewhat overlong, fans of romantic suspense will still embrace its over-the-top aspects. Overall, it’s an engrossing story of a battered woman trying to reclaim her life and find true love, and it features characters of impressive authenticity and emotional depth.
A highly charged romance with plenty of intrigue and danger.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4519-1
Page Count: 409
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anna may learn to laugh with, instead of at, Grey, but the constant lampooning leaves the reader numb.
Can a young, preternaturally successful corporate executive overcome his 50 shameful secrets to find true love?
Andrew Shaffer (Great Philosophers who Failed at Love, 2011), writing as Merkin, skewers both E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight in his debut novel. Both series are certainly ripe for parody, yet Shaffer misses a real opportunity by indulging in easy, crude jokes, rather than incisive satire. Shaffer’s Anna Steal, like James’ Anastasia Steele and Meyer’s Bella Swan, suffers from a relentless interior monologue. Unfortunately, she offers little in the way of thought or advice, but instead wonders how elevators work and gulps in awe of Mr. Grey. Anna meets Grey while interviewing him for Boardroom Hotties, the magazine her too-often-hung-over roommate writes for, and the attraction is instantaneous. Grey quickly seeks to acquire Anna, dazzling her with his wealth by purchasing Wal-Mart just to give her the afternoon off for a date, buying Washington State University just to relieve her of taking tests, flying her about in his fighter jets and helicopters, ordering two of everything on the room-service menu, and whisking her away to a private island. Yet Grey has “dangerous” secrets. Unlike Edward Cullen, who was a lethal vampire, or Christian Grey, who sought the perfect submissive for his domination, Earl Grey indulges in rather tame danger. His secrets include a fondness for spanking, swimming in silver thongs, dressing up as an elf, and decorating with black velvet paintings. Warning Anna about his kinky sexuality, he introduces her to his Room of Doom, where they play Bards, Dragons, Sorcery and Magick. More a Master of Dungeons and Dragons than BDSM, Grey shocks Anna not with his deviance but his self-delusions.
Anna may learn to laugh with, instead of at, Grey, but the constant lampooning leaves the reader numb.Pub Date: July 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-306-82199-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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