Lots of sugar and little substance, but a fun ride nonetheless.
Crusie and Mayer team up again (Don’t Look Down, 2006) in a comic caper and raucous romance.
Agnes is a quirky, teetering-on-the-edge-of-insanity chef with a hit cookbook and a penchant for whacking ex-fiancées with frying pans. Shane is a handsome hitman with a shady past. When Agnes is attacked after moving into her dream house in the small southern town of Keyes, S.C., Shane’s Uncle Joey, a mobster with a soft spot for Agnes, sends his nephew to protect her. Shane, having just botched a big job, is questioning his future as a professional killer. When he meets Agnes, her home cooking and voluptuous curves quickly dissolve his tough exterior. Within a nanosecond, the two fall for each other, a coupling about as realistic as the rest of the plot, but forgivable as it makes up in entertainment value what it lacks in plausibility. Bedding a hitman, unraveling the mystery surrounding her house and fending off assassins are only some of Agnes’s concerns. She is also hosting her best friend’s daughter’s wedding at the end of the week, an occasion the grandmother of the bride continually tries to sabotage with, among other creative and psychotic episodes, a delivery of pink flamingos on Agnes’s lawn. But our heroine forges ahead, becoming extra-determined to pull it all off when she learns she will lose her dream house if the wedding doesn’t happen. The cast of local characters makes for a colorful, albeit clichéd, ensemble: Sexy older women, backcountry hicks, an emotional bodyguard and a mobster-in-disguise are added to the mix, though readers may get lost in the mish-mash of names and whodunits as the complicated mafia history unwinds. Despite the movie-like shoot-outs, cheesy cops-and-robbers banter and borderline-painful pillow talk, this is more farce than melodrama. Still, certain scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, and while Shane falls flat, crazy Agnes is a feisty, likable character worth rooting for.
Lots of sugar and little substance, but a fun ride nonetheless.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36304-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005,...
Murder mixes with anguish in steamy Savannah.
FBI-trained hostage negotiator Phoebe MacNamara is a lieutenant in the Savannah police department. Ever since Phoebe and her family were held hostage when she was 12, her mother has been agoraphobic, and Phoebe and her brother Carter still bear the psychological scars, but Phoebe’s used the memory to hone her skills. While talking a suicidal bartender off a ledge, she meets his boss, Duncan Swift. The charming millionaire coaxes her into meeting for a drink, and their relationship slowly deepens. But life takes a turn for the worse when a misogynist cop botches a hostage situation. Suspended, he blames Phoebe and retaliates by viciously attacking her in the precinct house stairwell. He loses his job, but his father’s connections keep him out of jail. Phoebe is physically and mentally injured, but her family and her blossoming relationship with Duncan help her cope until a dangerous pattern develops: A strange man keeps crossing her path. Dead animals begin appearing on her doorstep. A hostage taker is shot after she talks him into surrendering. Her ex-husband is brutally murdered by the mystery man, who phones her with sadistic threats. Is it the spiteful disgraced cop or someone from her past? Phoebe must identify the killer before he can carry out his final outrage.
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005, etc.).Pub Date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-15434-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
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
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