Pallid novel that banks on flimsy contrivance.
A highly contrived romantic saga set in sumptuous Southern California brings together successive generations of two families after a definitive car accident.
The booze flows and the Dave Brubeck tunes wail at an L.A. party for artist Rachel Espinosa and her husband, Rudy Banning, sometime in the late 1950s. Angry and drunk, Rudy, the heir to the Banning oil fortune, takes off with Rachel in the car and slams into oncoming traffic, killing them and in the other car, famous singer Jimmy Peyton and his manager. The accident leaves Banning’s two boys, Cale and Jud, orphans in the care of their formidable grandfather, Victor Banning, who single-handedly built his fortune. Peyton’s widow, Kathryn, is left with a small daughter, Laurel; they move first into Jimmy’s mother’s home in L.A., then, when Laurel is 17, to the island of Santa Catalina, where, it so happens, the Bannings have a vacation house and boat. Now it is 1970, and the youths are on spring break—Laurel manages unsuspectingly to meet first Jud, who works in his grandfather’s business, then Cale, who is applying unsuccessfully to medical school. Cale and Laurel fall in love, though the autocratic Victor forces Cale to give Laurel up in exchange for his underhandedly arranged acceptance to med school. With his brother out of the way, Jud moves in on Laurel, and Cale feels betrayed—and holds a grudge for the next 30 years. The novel’s next section reintroduces the same protagonists in new configurations: Laurel is a chef, now divorced, with a grown daughter, while Cale is a widowed heart surgeon with two sons. The outcome couldn’t be more hackneyed, as eligible bachelor Jud courts divorced Laurel, who then turns to Cale for—what else?—heart surgery.
Pallid novel that banks on flimsy contrivance.Pub Date: June 6, 2006
ISBN: 0-671-03535-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
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. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
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 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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