Rock's happily-ever-after is bittersweet, beautiful, and deeply satisfying.
As Gould uses kink to mourn his ex-boyfriend Hal's death at the hands of a negligent dom, he has to decide what he wants from his relationships with Kel and Greg, the married owners of Riddle, the club where Hal died.
While Gould finds himself fulfilled deeply by his submissive play with Kel and Greg, he's holding a grudge over their part in Hal's death and their decision to let Bill, the dom who left him tied up unattended, back into their space. Kel is a plus-size mistress who values trust and communication above everything else, which is hard for Gould. He lives in his own head and uses submission as a way to try to stop his overly analytical mind from assigning meaning and blame. Author Rock (Manties In a Twist, 2016, etc.) is inspired in the way she positively represents a richly diverse community of nuanced characters. She's done her research about various fetishes and aspects of the kink community, and there's a sweet wholesomeness to the way the characters care for one another. Gould's friends are bound (no pun intended) by their histories and commitments to protecting their peers. The well-rounded characters and compelling plot don't require that the reader bring any knowledge of BDSM to the table or even that they share any fetishes. This is an unexpectedly great book. It would be easy to approach it only as kinky erotic fiction, but it's also an incredibly well-written story about friendship, unconventional love, grief, and finding a community. It's as funny as it is touching, and in the end, it's about finding the love that challenges and encourages you to be your best self.
Rock's happily-ever-after is bittersweet, beautiful, and deeply satisfying.Pub Date: June 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62649-350-6
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Riptide
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
An entertaining, affecting romance.
A downtrodden nanny sends off a quick note of appreciation to a soldier; when it lands on a major’s desk, it sparks an unexpected romance, but things get complicated once he's back on U.S. soil.
Sara Ryan needs a change. She loves her niece, Kaylee, but being the girl's nanny for the past three years has made it too easy for her brother and sister-in-law to duck their parenting responsibilities while taking advantage of her time and kindness. Sara's widowed mother depends on her, too, and now that Sara has spent years taking care of her family, they've become dependent and entitled while continually chipping away at her self-esteem. Then, when she hears a radio story about sending letters to troops serving abroad, Maj. Gabriel Randall comes into her life. He responds to her letter with an email, which leads to texts, FaceTime, and a full-blown emotional affair—and finally an airline ticket to Alaska for Sara to spend time with Gabriel at the end of his deployment. But Sara has confided to no one but a cousin about the correspondence, and as the day she’s supposed to leave for Alaska grows closer, she continues to keep her silence, creating confusion and turmoil when events force her to face her choices head-on. James (a new pen name for established author Sydney Landon) takes on a kind of mashup of “Cinderella” and soldier pen-pal fantasy, in a sweet, touching way. It is frustrating how reactive Sara is until the very end—even understanding that that’s supposed to be her growth arc—and how everyone else solves her problems, but the ultimate meshing of two lonely souls through a seemingly fated letter makes for a tender, satisfying love story overall.
An entertaining, affecting romance.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0695-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A have-your-cake-and-eat-it romp, done with brio and not a syllable of moralizing. Newcomer Kinsella has a light touch and...
Another bright young thing from London with a bad habit: shopping.
Rebecca Bloomwood is a financial journalist of sorts, offering sensible advice—which she seldom takes—in the glossy periodical Successful Saving. But she herself can’t resist a designer sale, the more useless and expensive a garment, the better. In fact, Rebecca harbors an irrational wish to be run over just so the world can see her new bra with embroidered yellow rosebuds and gorgeous matching knickers. Her pitiful salary, though, doesn’t allow for extravagances like these, and her overdraft allowance has been exceeded by several thousand pounds. An officious accounts manager named Derek Smeath sends increasingly less polite dunning notices every day, and her tall tales about broken legs and dead dogs and even a recent conversion to evangelical Christianity are failing to deter—or amuse—him. Meanwhile, perky flatmate Suze, the daughter of fabulously rich and indulgent parents, is little help, although she does fix Rebecca up with her equally wealthy cousin, Tarquin Cleath-Stuart. Dreaming wistfully of marrying money, Rebecca tries to impress the dull but sincere Tarquin by inventing a charity that provides violins for impoverished children in Mozambique—and is mortified when he immediately makes a donation of five thousand pounds, scribbling a cheque that she has to return. But there’s another man in her future: handsome Luke Brandon, a financial genius who devised a fund-switching scheme that seems to have deprived her parents’ neighbors—a well-meaning but slightly dotty old couple—of their nest egg. Outraged, Rebecca publicizes their plight on a morning TV show. Then Luke, a smooth operator in more ways than one, explains all—and beds her on their first date. But he won’t be the only one charmed by Rebecca’s wit and style.
A have-your-cake-and-eat-it romp, done with brio and not a syllable of moralizing. Newcomer Kinsella has a light touch and puckish humor.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-33548-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delta
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
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