A series starter for readers who like their romances with hard-charging plots and light character development.
Nash’s (Looking for a Hero, 2016, etc.) energetic prose drives this supernatural, erotic romance that offers a new twist on the Arthurian legend.
This first novel in a planned series sets the stage for a clash of realms, beginning with the coming-of-age of Arthur Camulus. Arthur, 19, is the only living, direct descendant of Merlin, “the most powerful Nephil ever to walk the Earth.” As a Nephil—the offspring of a fallen angel and a human—Arthur is scheduled to activate his magical Druid powers at age 20. But before that happens, he goes rogue to escape Mab, his clan’s alpha, who has plans to enslave him. Arthur’s lover, Cybele, joins him in Wales,* where he aims to develop his powers independently, following a solo “Ordeal” with “No guide, no mentor.” He attracts the attention of not only Mab, but also the three archangels who run Heaven while God naps—Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel—and Vaclav Dusek, the alpha of a rival clan. Dusek furthers his aim to unleash demonic forces into the world while Raphael advances his own independent agenda. Arthur and Cybele, along with Cybele’s twin, Luc, escape Dusek and are safe in a London apartment—as long as they stay inside and don’t do magic. But with “hellfiends” swarming the world, how long can that last? Erotic scenes dot the novel, and the sparkiest involve Mab and her accoutrements (“A ball gag….A massive strap-on dildo”). The foreplay between Arthur and Cybele is sometimes painful to read, though, as when her nails “barely” scrape “the tip of his engorged penis.” Characters occasionally get convenient amnesia, apparently to advance the plot: “How could she have forgotten?” thinks Cybele when her blood accidentally triggers Arthur’s demonic side. The worldbuilding is generally strong, however, and it will sweep readers through the story. Taut prose prevails throughout: “Luc flicked his wrists, calling his hellfire. Sparks of green gathered in his palms. One good blast combusted the corpse. Flesh and bone burned.” That said, the overused term “magic” could have used some fresh alternatives.
A series starter for readers who like their romances with hard-charging plots and light character development.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-941017-01-2
Page Count: 370
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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