A competent debut from an up-and-coming author.
An executive needs a wife to gain his grandmother’s blessing to become CEO of the family business.
Garrett Song is one step away from achieving his lifelong dream of heading his family’s Los Angeles fashion empire. Shocked at his grandmother’s announcement that she's chosen a Korean heiress for him to marry and that he must marry her if he wants to be promoted, Garrett lies and tells her that he's already engaged. Garrett has given his entire life to the company, but he refuses to let his family dictate whom he’ll marry, even if the marriage would allow the Songs to enter into the jae-bul, the wealthy, entitled echelon of Korean society. Enter Natalie Sobol, an up-and-coming HR professional in his firm. Natalie is attempting to gain custody of her 6-month-old niece after her sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident. When Garrett asks Natalie to agree to a fake marriage to thwart his grandmother’s plan, Natalie realizes the appearance of being happily married might sway the court to rule in her favor. Lee’s debut novel succeeds as a category romance (belonging to the branded lines of shorter Harlequin romances published every month), as the book is jammed with popular romance tropes such as familial duty, fake engagement, and corporate espionage. Natalie and Garrett are likable characters who want to achieve their goals on their own terms, and when they team up as husband and wife, they discover they make each other stronger both professionally and personally. It’s especially poignant that Natalie, who is mostly unfamiliar with her own Korean heritage, mends the discord between Garrett and his old-fashioned grandmother. Some of the plot twists seem contrived or underdeveloped, and Natalie’s urgency to adopt her niece doesn’t feel convincing since the baby spends most of the time off-page with the grandparents who also want custody. Nevertheless, it’s a quick, enjoyable read.
A competent debut from an up-and-coming author.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-335-20894-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harlequin Desire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An entertaining page-turner.
Terri Rayburn is devastated that her perfect man belongs to someone else, but once Nate Taggert realizes that Terri's the one for him, her complicated past still stands in the way of their being together.
Terri is attracted to Nate the moment she lays eyes on him, and soon they fall into an easy partnership at the Virginia lake resort she runs with her father. Nate is upfront about being engaged to the mayor’s daughter, Stacy, but she’s in Europe for a few weeks, and it quickly becomes clear to Terri that Nate and Stacy aren’t a great match. However, Terri, whose mother left when she was 2, has always had a problematic relationship with the citizens of Summer Hill. Since Leslie disappeared, the town gossip has made sure everyone remembers her as a promiscuous vixen, a label which tainted Terri as she got older and made her look like a problem when, as Nate begins to understand, she was really a victim. It’s clear to everyone around them that they are falling in love, but even as Nate realizes it himself, Terri is adamant that they can’t be together. She won’t steal him from the popular Stacy because it would mean she’d never be able to live in Summer Hill, and she won’t abandon her father. Deveraux spins an intriguing and unorthodox romance, continuing her Summer Hill branch of the Taggert/Montgomery series with two characters who have some unique, interesting obstacles in their paths and navigate through them with secrets uncovered and old wounds healed. The story is well plotted, though Nate is unnecessarily oblivious sometimes and the book takes an unexpected swing into romantic suspense territory in the last quarter. The solved mystery resolves Nate and Terri’s conflict, though the villain’s motivations seem a little cartoonish.
An entertaining page-turner.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7783-5124-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
While Liv’s more pedestrian story is less romantic than Sophie’s and far less nuanced, Moyes is a born storyteller who makes...
The newest novel by Moyes (Me Before You, 2012, etc.) shares its title with a fictional painting that serves as catalyst in linking two love stories, one set in occupied France during World War I, the other in 21st-century London.
In a French village in 1916, Sophie is helping the family while her husband, Édouard, an artist who studied with Matisse, is off fighting. Sophie’s pluck in standing up to the new German kommandant in the village draws his interest. An art lover, he also notices Édouard's portrait of Sophie, which captures her essence (and the kommandant's adoration). Arranging to dine regularly at Sophie’s inn with his men, he begins a cat-and-mouse courtship. She resists. But learning that Édouard is being held in a particularly harsh “reprisal” camp, she must decide what she will sacrifice for Édouard’s freedom. The rich portrayals of Sophie, her family and neighbors hauntingly capture wartime’s gray morality. Cut to 2006 and a different moral puzzle. Thirty-two-year-old widow Liv has been struggling financially and emotionally since her husband David’s sudden death. She meets Paul in a bar after her purse is stolen. The divorced father is the first man she’s been drawn to since she was widowed. They spend a glorious night together, but after noticing Édouard's portrait of Sophie on Liv’s wall, he rushes away with no explanation. In fact, Paul is as smitten as Liv, but his career is finding and returning stolen art to the rightful owners. Usually the artwork was confiscated by Germans during World War II, not WWI, but Édouard's descendants recently hired him to find this very painting. Liv is not about to part with it; David bought it on their honeymoon because the portrait reminded him of Liv. In love, Liv and Paul soon find themselves on opposite sides of a legal battle.
While Liv’s more pedestrian story is less romantic than Sophie’s and far less nuanced, Moyes is a born storyteller who makes it impossible not to care about her heroines.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-670-02661-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
