The husband-and-wife team that has produced several plump romances (Pot of Gold, 1993, etc.) builds on the best-selling Deceptions (1982), which unfolded the plight of twin sisters identical in degrees of talent, comfortable surrounds, and general gorgeousness. Just for fun, the two had exchanged places (career woman and homemaker) for a week, but in that week, one twin apparently died. Complications thereafter ensued and ensued. Now, a year after the demise of sister Stephanie (erstwhile wife of professor Garth and mother of two), career woman Sabrina, who'd taken on Stephanie's identity, has been forgiven by Garth for the masquerade of Deceptions and now is much in love with Garth, the kids, and her life. Meanwhile, the real Stephanie—blown into French waters from a yacht where, as ``Sabrina,'' she'd been traveling with Max, a powerful international smuggler—has been rescued by Max after the explosion (an assassination attempt on Max). But Stephanie has lost her memory and believes Max when he tells her they are married. Back in Illinois, Garth and Sabrina, who now goes by the name of Stephanie, deal with teen problems, an unscrupulous student with murder in mind, and a meddling congressman. In Provence, Stephanie, settled in and growing bored with Max, falls in love with painter LÇon and learns of Max's curious mix of illegal and humanitarian smuggling. Of course, the twins will find each other and begin to deal with the messy consequences of their deceptions. Since Stephanie is addressed by others as Sabrina, and vice versa, it's an eye-crossing go for a while, but there are enough events—murder, lacy lovemaking, kid crises—bobbing above the swell of sentiment and droplets of luxury (``She wore cream-colored silk pants...and emeralds and diamonds at her neck and ears and wrists'') to float the reader along. (Literary Guild main selection)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-79879-0
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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