Though Tucker’s prose and pacing have a vibrant energy, the plot is simply preposterous.
Tucker returns to Miami in her loosely tied romantic series (One Tiny Lie, 2014, etc.), this time focusing on the saintly owner of Penny’s Palace—the city’s most exclusive strip club.
After Cain Ford's troubled youth (his family was murdered; his life as an underground fighter led to deaths), at 29 he operates a swanky strip club as a way of saving desperate women from the sex trade. Or at least a version of the sex trade in which you're asked to perform more than a lap dance. He also owns an apartment building where many of his dancers live, so he can look after them. But don’t call him a pimp—he uses his street-fighting skills on anyone who does. Into his club walks Charlie Rourke, a 22-year-old blonde beauty. She’s hired as a stripper, but everything Cain sees—and guiltily lusts after—is a deception. The young woman known as Charlie is really an 18-year-old New Yorker sent to Miami by her mob-boss stepfather, Sam, to help him smuggle heroin. When her mother died, Sam showered little Charlie with everything—trips, toys, loving affection; each birthday was special, and he never missed a gymnastics meet. Which is why it's so hard for Charlie to say no to Sam, but she can’t figure out why a loving father would jeopardize his daughter's safety (neither can the reader), and she knows she has to escape. That means a new identity, which is expensive, and enough money to hold her over; thus the stripping. Cain is mesmerized by Charlie (there are many references to him adjusting his pants), and soon the two give in to their lust. But Charlie’s cover is slipping, Cain’s buddy is with the DEA, and Sam has hired a new partner who's threatening Charlie, so it hardly seems the time for romance. Charlie runs away, and the only way she’s coming back is if Sam is gone.
Though Tucker’s prose and pacing have a vibrant energy, the plot is simply preposterous.Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-4049-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
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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