Trollope (Friday Nights, 2008, etc.) treats her characters with tough love, refusing to either downplay or offer pat...
Second family of a British entertainer is unpleasantly surprised by his legacy, in Trollope’s latest sensitive depiction of domestic upheaval.
Richie Rossiter, whose first wife (and agent) Margaret grew up with him in the fishing and mining towns of Tynemouth and Newcastle, never dreamed of expanding his musical circuit beyond his native Northern England until a much younger fan, Chrissie, approached him after a concert. A successful artistic manager, Chrissie promised to put Richie on the map in London and beyond as a pianist and singer-songwriter. She also enticed him away from Margaret and their son Scott, then 14. Now, established in a fashionable London neighborhood with Richie and their three daughters, Chrissie suffers misgivings over the fact that she and Richie never married. She even buys her own anniversary band of diamonds, albeit industrial ones. When Richie dies suddenly of a heart attack, Chrissie learns he willed his early copyrights and his Steinway piano to Margaret (still his wife) and Scott. Worse, since Chrissie cannot claim a spousal exemption, the rest of his estate will be largely consumed by inheritance taxes. Paralyzed by grief and the threat of imminent destitution, Chrissie resists her friend Sue’s advice to sell the family house and give up the piano. Twenty-something daughters Tamsin, with her entry-level job, and Dilly, lovely but listless, are ill-equipped to support themselves. Youngest daughter Amy, 18, who is reluctantly studying for her University entrance exams, reaches out to Scott, now a lawyer in Newcastle, because she wants to learn more about her father’s origins. Amy, a flutist, negotiates a diplomatic solution to the piano debacle, and Scott, safely in possession of the Steinway—he’s a passably competent player—invites Amy to Newcastle, where she discovers a passion for folk music. Margaret, aging in a shore-side cottage with her cat, is both disillusioned and reinvigorated by Richie’s unexpected bequest.
Trollope (Friday Nights, 2008, etc.) treats her characters with tough love, refusing to either downplay or offer pat solutions to their predicaments.Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4391-2983-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
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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