Solid, well-paced read with an appealing, multigenerational cast. As usual, Dailey delivers.
That family again (Green Calder Grass, 2002, etc.).
On the grand tour of Europe with Aunt Tara, 21-year-old Laura Calder finds continental elegance and decorum unimpressive and fights the impulse to shout “Yee-haw!” at swanky soirées. She could get away with it, seeing as how she’s blond, built, beautiful—and knows it. Soon she has two suitors: Boone Rutledge, sexy son of a Texas zilllionaire, and Sebastian Dunhill, the Earl of Crawford. So who will it be? Boone and his sensually smoldering, alpha-male attitude, or Sebastian, who does a fabulous job of kissing her feet and toes? Meanwhile, back in Montana at the Triple C, the Calder clan is wondering how their Laura is making out. Ranch life just isn’t the same without her around to raise hell. But Laura soon returns with both lovers (just to liven things up), and she calls the shots in this satisfying if not soul-stirring romance.
Solid, well-paced read with an appealing, multigenerational cast. As usual, Dailey delivers.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7582-0440-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
An amnesia plot done right and a fantastic heroine mark a strong series debut.
First in the Cowboys of California series, about brothers who run a luxury dude ranch.
Celebrity chef Evie Buchanan was raised on the Pleasant family’s luxury dude ranch in Charming, California, by her grandmother, a renowned horse trainer, after her parents were killed in a car accident. In the decade since her grandmother died, Evie has been working her way up the culinary ladder in New York City. She has found success co-hosting a television show, but she has never met a man quite like the cowboy who broke her heart. Zach Pleasant, gorgeous, charming, and laser focused on work, is now co-owner of Big Rock Ranch with his brother, Jesse. When Evie sustains a traumatic brain injury at an industry party and loses her memory, she needs a quiet place, away from Manhattan, to recover. The Pleasant family takes her in, and Evie slowly begins to regain some of her cooking skills and memories. She’s attracted to Zach, but trying to come to terms with how he hurt her in the past without remembering it proves a challenge. Evie is a heroine to root for—resilient, brave, honest, funny, and humble. Her struggles, not only to recover, but to reinvent herself, are movingly portrayed: “I want to feel loved, like really loved. I want to feel that I have something that is mine for as long as I can hold on to it.” The romance competes with a very large cast of characters in both New York and California, and a suspense subplot fizzles out, but Zach is a good man and a fitting match.
An amnesia plot done right and a fantastic heroine mark a strong series debut.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2540-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dafina/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Moyes' fans won't be disappointed with this altogether pleasant voyage.
Australian brides form friendships as they make their way to England aboard an aircraft carrier in this novel, originally published in Britain in 2005, from Moyes (Silver Bay, 2014, etc.).
After World War II ends, more than 600 Australian brides are traveling to join their husbands in England. But the Victoria is no luxury liner—it's an aircraft carrier, and it's also full of naval officers. The novel follows four roommates (a pregnant farm girl, a social striver, a loudmouthed teenager and a quiet nurse) as well as some of the ship’s men as secrets are revealed and true friendships are slowly formed over the six-week voyage, but not every woman is lucky enough to get a happy ending. The troubles the characters face are not always due to marrying faraway men during wartime; their problems are often caused by the lofty expectations and limited roles forced on women in the 1940s, and this well-researched novel shines a light on women's postwar lives. In this world, men are able to have full lives and consequence-free extramarital dalliances, but even the intimation of an affair is enough to ruin a bride’s life. Although focusing on so many characters could easily have become overwhelming, Moyes masterfully balances their stories. The book drags in parts, and the largely unnecessary frame story is easily forgotten, but those are small complaints. Moyes creates characters full of warmth and heart, and readers will find themselves swept up in this quiet, emotional story.
Moyes' fans won't be disappointed with this altogether pleasant voyage.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-14-312647-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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