Deliciously crass with a unique focus on men who aren’t the one.
After freeing herself from a long marriage marred by her husband’s infidelity, a military wife rejoins the dating world only to run across more players and cheaters in Franklin’s debut novel.
Smart-mouthed Tiffany Lynn Scott spent 26 years as the woman behind the man, constantly sacrificing her own desires for her husband’s military career—only to have him cheat on her multiple times. After leaving him, she rejoins the ranks of the single in her 40s, and her days and nights are filled with meeting, greeting, and Internet dating. She’s constantly searching for Mr. Right, but too often settles for her eponymous “Mr. Right for the Moment.” Among the men is Smith, aka “Lizaaad,” nicknamed for his ample endowment; he’s a military man who skirts the line between friend and lover with her until, one day, a massage turns into a flurry of sexual passion. Smith has a fiancee and a wedding day looming, yet Tiff finds herself smitten, even as his jealous nature and the impossibility of a future with him becomes ever more apparent. When he’s shipped off to Iraq, she’s heartbroken, but then a buff, streetwise Southerner she calls “Big Country” comes into her life. He approaches her in a sincere manner that she’s not accustomed to from men, even though he’s up front about seeing other women. Her greatest ally is her Reality—her name for the sassy avatar of her inner voice, who appears in different outfits to warn her of suitors’ duplicitous actions. Franklin’s novel is a light, humorous read narrated from Tiff's point of view, which takes full advantage of the heroine’s fast-talking style and use of modern slang and military jargon. Tiff’s affinity for the vulgar accentuates the book’s humor, while its more erotic scenes are even steamier for their straightforwardness. Tiff is a refreshing lead, and proof that a middle-aged woman can be vivacious, powerful, yet still fallible. This same nuance isn’t granted to her love interests, however, who are each portrayed as little more than sex-obsessed men who weaponize their charms; indeed, Big Country and Lizaaad have little character beyond their appearance and penis size. There’s also little plot, so those expecting a fairy tale about finding Prince Charming may be disappointed.
Deliciously crass with a unique focus on men who aren’t the one.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4363-5715-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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