The husband-and-wife writing team (A Tangled Web, 1994, etc.) strikes gold again with yet another likely bestseller: an insider's view of the New York theater scene. Lucas Cameron is one of the world's most famous and respected directors: his plays are legendary for their honesty and intensity. Lucas is also a bachelor, although his desperate ex-wife Claudia is determined to keep him a fixture in her life. The only person with whom Lucas shares his fears, hopes, and innermost thoughts, however, is his grandmother, the renowned actress Constance Bernhardt, who raised him after his parents died. Constance loves her ``Luke'' (as he's known) but harbors a secret hope that he will someday fall in love with her soulmate, the younger (Luke's age) and equally renowned actress Jessica Fontaine. When Luke and Jessica meet, however, Luke is still involved with Claudia and no sparks fly; the couple's paths don't cross again until Constance dies years later. When Constance's death comes suddenly in her villa in Italy, Luke heads there and discovers, among other things, his grandmother's cache of letters from Jessica. The correspondence (spanning 30 years) reveals a profound, mutually beneficial relationship between the two actresses; Luke also finds himself transfixed by this woman who was such an important part of his grandmother's life. When he tracks Jessica down, he's disillusioned at first; but as time goes on, both he and Jessica learn why both thought Constance the most insightful woman around. The letter excerpts used throughout—Jessica's to Constance, Constance's to Jessica, then Luke's to Jessica and vice versa—get old about halfway through, seeming less a judicious use of technique than a means of avoiding present-day plotting and dialogue. The love story, though, is a winner. (Radio satellite tour)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-517-70324-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997
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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