A slow-moving and conflict-free romance.
A handsome Irish bodyguard helps the heiress he’s protecting escape the frenzy created by a family scandal.
Wynter Bates is the adopted daughter of a tech billionaire and presidential hopeful, but she lives a quiet life as a linguist and translator. Ever since someone tried to kidnap Wyn when she was a child, her father has insisted on a full-time bodyguard. For the past year, ex-military officer Cullen Whelan has quietly and efficiently guarded Wyn, hoping to earn enough money to retire and leave behind his violent past. Wyn’s identity is thrown into question—and into a glaring media spotlight—when letters emerge that suggest she wasn’t adopted from a South African orphanage but instead is the product of her father’s love affair with a mentally unstable woman. Cullen whisks Wyn away to a privately owned compound on St. Thomas, where they pretend to be a couple rather than expose her situation. Although most bodyguard romances demand some sort of physical peril, here the only danger is to Wyn’s feelings. Her parents refuse to communicate with her, leaving Cullen to protect her from the emerging details and sordid drama. This is a slow-paced story that focuses on the interior lives of each character. Wyn and Cullen are both loners who fear commitment, but neither can resist their growing attraction. However, instead of showing Wyn and Cullen exploring their evolving relationship, Pope (Mostly Sunny, 2018, etc.) moves the most promising action and intimate moments offstage. Only later do they individually think, reflect, and ruminate about their feelings. This narrative choice to "tell not show" creates emotional distance between the reader and characters, eliminating any spark and deflating the chemistry of the love affair. The mystery of Wyn’s parentage is sidelined until the end, when the loose ends are tied up without much effort on her part.
A slow-moving and conflict-free romance.Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1827-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Classic Macomber, which will please fans and keep them coming back for more.
Jo Marie Rose continues to harbor struggling guests in her Cedar Cove inn while she works through her own grief.
After learning of her husband’s death in Afghanistan, Jo Marie bought a B&B in Cedar Cove and christened it The Inn at Rose Harbor. Settling into the charming community, becoming a first-class baker, and opening her home and her heart to guests have contributed to her own healing process, and she always feels especially connected to guests who are working through their own issues. She believes that the inn and the town offer sanctuary to anyone who needs it and is gratified when visitors seem buoyed by them. It’s spring in Cedar Cove, and guests to the inn include Annie, a young woman who has recently broken off her flawed engagement, and Mary, who is fighting cancer and wants a last glimpse of Seattle and some important people who live there, including George, the only man she ever loved. As for Jo Marie, she has a few concerns this season, including the ornery handyman she works with and some difficult news regarding the husband she still mourns. Each woman will find strength and refuge in facing painful aspects of their pasts, and romance is in the air for Annie from the least expected direction. Mary faces an uncertain future but is heartened by some long-hoped-for reconciliations. And Jo Marie still finds peace in her home and business, even if her personal life lacks resolution. In the second of Macomber’s Rose Harbor series, readers will find the emotionally impactful storylines and sweet, redemptive character arcs for which the author is famous.
Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-52893-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
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