67103468.500 Tervalon, Jervey DEAD ABOVE GROUND Gripping melodrama about Creoles in New Orleans in 1946, by the author of Understand This (1994), winner of QPB’s 1994 New Voices Award. Plenty of violence washes through these pages, but it never seems overdone, even with a villain who’s a handsome, well-dressed, sociopathic pimp who used to sew up boxers before he took to beating up his six whores. The story is told through the eyes of 17-year-old Lita Du Champ who, along with her wild mother Helen and beautiful sister Adele, could pass for white. —Mother raised us to be what we were—colored and proud, never wanting to be something we weren’t.” The story’s crisis comes when Adele, who has married well-paid Rene, a seaman, falls for cruelly attractive Lucien FaurÇ, a respected pimp proud of the women he’s murdered. Rene has been at sea for six months and Lucien has a special reason for pursuing and capturing Adele. Some years ago, in his teens, he had a whore named Ruby whom he was particularly fond of and loved to beat even when she got pregnant. Lita’s mother took pity on Ruby, had a white cop beat Lucien and send him to prison for a few years. As it happens, Ruby’s daughter, Adele, may be Lucien’s child. Back then, in any case, Helen boarded Ruby and fell in love with Adele; and, when the time came that a white man wanted to marry Ruby and take her to Canada, Ruby gave Adele to Helen to raise as her own daughter. Lucien, out of prison and back in business with three whores, now wants Adele as his more or less permanent mistress. She returns to Rene briefly, but then gets pregnant—violently—by Lucien. Helen has never explained to Adele the background of her birth, and Adele can’t understand why her “mother” is so set against her loving Lucien. None of this turns out well. Strongly sustained, with well-weighted characters that avoid stereotyping—even in the case of Lucien.
Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2000
ISBN: 0-671-03468-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE
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An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE
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Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
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