A well-crafted contemporary romance.
A woman’s return to her hometown forces her to confront secrets from her past and discover an unexpected new love in this sequel.
Becca Trevor is not surprised when her family’s business, Quilt Therapy, burns to the ground the night she returns to St. Caroline, a bucolic town on the eastern shore of Maryland. A self-described “whirling dervish of disaster,” she finds that wherever she goes, trouble follows. That night, she is surprised to see Jack Wolfe among the firefighters. Firefighting is a proud tradition in his family, but Jack seemed destined for something more. Most folks believe he is employed by a tech company in California, but in reality he dropped out of law school and works as a security guard and volunteer firefighter. The Trevor and Wolfe families are close, and Becca and Jack had a drunken romantic encounter the night of high school graduation. She got pregnant and left for Ohio to have the baby. Their daughter was adopted by a loving single mother, and Becca intends to keep the child a secret from Jack and their families. Their renewed friendship quickly turns romantic; however, when their daughter’s adoptive mother contacts Becca, she faces a difficult choice that could affect her relationship with Jack. This second novel in Gabriel’s (Chiaroscuro, 2017, etc.) St. Caroline series offers a compelling romance supported by nuanced characters. Becca and Jack are appealing protagonists whose comfortable and easy rapport blossoms into a second-chance romance that never seems contrived for the convenience of the plot. The author is particularly adept at developing romantic tension through playful and erotic scenes of flirtation. Gabriel also successfully strikes a delicate balance between Becca and Jack’s relationship and the family tragedy the couple face. Jack’s mother, Angela, is terminally ill, and the effects of her illness on her family and friends are heartbreaking and sensitively drawn. That said, although it is plausible that Becca could keep her pregnancy a secret from Jack and his relatives, it is incredible that she could successfully conceal it from her own close-knit family. Still, this engaging tale may appeal to fans of Elin Hilderbrand.
A well-crafted contemporary romance.Pub Date: June 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5472-7074-3
Page Count: 290
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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