Heartfelt but without the emotional punch of Pratt’s previous work.
Once again celebrating the Greatest Generation, Pratt (The Lighthouse Keeper, p. 12, etc.) charts another love story, this time about twin brothers who worship the same woman.
Now in his 80s and ailing, Lucian Parker is determined to face the ghosts he’s been running from since he came back from WWII. He’s been happily married to Mary Jane all these years, raised a family, and run a successful railroad, but he has a dark secret that he knows he must confess to her. He recalls how it all began in the summer of 1939 when the Parker family inherited enough money to buy a short-line rail near Redemption, Oklahoma. Twin brothers Lucian and Norman had mixed feelings about the move: Norman was happy to live in the country, but Lucian wanted to go college, become an engineer, and live in the city. Both agreed on one thing, though: they both were in love with Mary Jane Harrison, who was spending the summer there with her grandfather. When Mary Jane left to work in California, Lucian, who’d also moved there, began courting her, much to Norman’s dismay. As war seemed imminent, Lucian and Norman both joined up, and Lucian married Mary Jane two days before shipping out. At that point in his recollections, Lucian pauses and with Mary Jane heads to Manila. There, in some overwrought scenes, while visiting a war cemetery with a taxi driver, who too coincidentally turns out to be the son of a former comrade, Lucian recalls the war years. The twins were in the same unit in the Philippines, and while Norman joined the Philippine guerrillas on Bataan after the American retreat, Lucian was a POW forced by the Japanese to work on a railroad. Only one brother made it home. Obvious foreshadowing undercuts the revelations that follow, and the affirmations of love and forgiveness seem more saccharine than sincere.
Heartfelt but without the emotional punch of Pratt’s previous work.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26633-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
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
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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