With three stories told two ways, this third book in Deveraux's Summerhouse series (The Girl from Summer Hill, 2016, etc.)...
Three women sharing a house in Summer Hill, Virginia, use a time-traveling service to rewrite their pasts.
After a therapist conspires to bring Elise, Kathy, and Olivia together to bond over their failed marriages, they spill their secrets in a cheerful cacophony of dialogue: Elise has just fled her cheating husband, Olivia has divorced and remarried, and Kathy doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to join their club. All three stories are juicy and entertaining. Halfway through, the book takes a sharp turn when the women discover they can go back in time to the moment before it all went wrong by drinking a special tea made from, according to the potion maker, “herbs that help you relax.” In three weeks, they’ll return to the present to see the results. Olivia, a 60-something newlywed, is mourning the years she wasted with her philandering ex instead of marrying her current husband when they met 40 years ago. Twenty-something Elise regrets marrying the man chosen for her by her controlling parents and has a recurring fantasy that her gardener will carry her away on the back of his horse. (A wealthy white woman falling for her Mexican gardener is a cliché, but to Elise’s credit, she looks up from Alejandro’s shirtless torso long enough to learn he has a degree in botany, and he schools her in the process.) Alongside the budding romances, the friendships are in full bloom. Kathy, in her 40s and the curviest woman of the three, worries that the two skinnier women are judging her, but their stories reassure her that heartbreak comes in all sizes—and she goes back in time to change how she feels about herself.
With three stories told two ways, this third book in Deveraux's Summerhouse series (The Girl from Summer Hill, 2016, etc.) is emotional, imaginative, and gloriously silly.Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7783-0761-7
Page Count: 417
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Michaels’s cluttered style has been noticeably trimmed this time around, which keeps the over-the-top plot moving right...
Good brother, bad brother.
It’s 1984: Rick, a wild young Hollywood star and all-around stud, is boozing heavily and secretly doing drugs—but he’s been warned. His controlling, money-mad, hyper-responsible older brother Philly isn’t going to bail him out next time, or square things with that dated entity referred to only as “the studio.” Skip to 1999: Rick’s sobered up and he’s still going strong. “He had a tinge of gray at his temples these days, but the studio expertly covered it up.” (The prolific Michaels may have been too busy churning out bestsellers to notice that studios haven’t kept actors under contract for decades, but never mind.) Rick skips the dye job, however, when Philly dies in an accident and leaves most of his estate to his ne’er-do-well brother, who gives up acting and takes over the resorts-for-the-rich that Philly was developing, though Roxy, Philly’s trashy wife, resents him for it. Ditto Reba, Roxy’s plastic surgeon daughter: Philly was like a father to her but he didn’t leave her much money. Well, what the hell, Rick wants to make everyone happy and redeem himself, so he lets Roxy take over the Crown Jewel, their flagship island resort—and he makes peace with Max and Tyler, the grown sons who never knew him (Philly paid off their mothers), then befriends tough but cute reporter Gracie Lick, and investigates the mystery of Philly’s parentage. Gee, Philly was adopted! Can it be true that Philly’s real mother, 14 when he was born, is now married to aged billionaire Armand Farquar? And did the young Lorraine rescue her newborn son from a Dumpster when her heartless lover tossed him in and then bravely give him up for adoption? She did! And is her lover, Philly’s father, now the Vice President of the United States? He is! Will reporter Gracie Lick take this unlikely story and run with it? She will!
Michaels’s cluttered style has been noticeably trimmed this time around, which keeps the over-the-top plot moving right along. For the fans.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2003
ISBN: 0-7434-5779-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2003
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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