Eberlen's characters are so real and deserving of love—thankfully it’s safe to root for them both, and root for them you...
Have you ever caught a stranger's eye for a moment too long and wondered, "what if?"
In 1997, 18-year-old Tess and her best friend, Doll, are in Florence, Italy, the summer before Tess is supposed to begin university in London. She first encounters the lanky, disheveled Gus when they both wander inside a quiet church. By chance, Tess and Doll see him again on the Ponte Vecchio, where Gus takes a picture for them—but then they’re gone. That momentary connection is all that binds these two together as life hands them obstacles and heartbreaks separately. Gus must deal with the guilt he feels over his older brother's death in a skiing accident and grabs the chance to reinvent himself at school with a new girlfriend, Lucy, who knows nothing of his past. Tess returns from Italy to the realization that her mother is not only sick, but dying. Who will care for her unusual baby sister, Hope? For Tess, it means forgoing her spot at the same university where Gus is starting over. Debut novelist Eberlen develops two wonderfully distinct storylines, but her characters are carefully connected by proximity and circumstance. It’s as if their shadows are moving in sync from opposite sides of a screen. For readers who like their romance to simmer throughout a story, be warned that Eberlen deals more in missed chances: "In front of me, there was a tall woman with a fidgety little girl in one hand"—if only Tess had turned around. We instead have the pleasure of getting to know Gus and Tess completely before they truly meet each other. It’s a bittersweet moment when their timelines finally converge years later, as there isn’t much time before Eberlen lets the curtain fall. Though at that point it’s already clear: “Sometimes the best things are staring you right in the face, know what I mean?”
Eberlen's characters are so real and deserving of love—thankfully it’s safe to root for them both, and root for them you will.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-246022-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal...
A gumbo seasoned with ghosts, love, and murder on the bayou.
When 30-something Declan Fitzgerald of Boston, a successful lawyer and a member of a large and loving family, breaks off his engagement to very suitable Jessica, he knows he needs to change his life. Lawyering is not fun anymore, so, recalling Manet Hall, an old deserted plantation house he once visited with law school classmate and New Orleans native Remy, he buys the property and moves down south. Declan is also a gifted craftsman, a born decorator, and very, very rich. Soon, he meets beautiful Lena, who’s visiting her grandmother Odette, Declan’s friendly Cajun neighbor. Declan is as certain that Lena is destined to be his wife as he was that Manet Hall would become his home. But, surprise, Lena has a troubled past (like the house) and is determined to resist Declan’s courtship. While he suits Lena and works on the place, Declan experiences troubling dreams. It seems he’s actually reliving the novel’s parallel story, which took place in 1899. In that year, the maid, Abbey Manet (from whom Lena, coincidentally, is descended, and who married wealthy Lucian Manet), was raped and murdered by her brother-in-law Julian as she nursed her baby daughter. Her body was dumped into the bayou by her mother-in-law, who despised her. And grief-stricken husband Lucian, away at the time, being told that Abbey had run off, committed suicide. Now, in an unconvincing twist of gender and reincarnation, it’s Declan who hears a baby crying , experiences childbirth and rape as the reincarnation of Abbey, while Lena is Lucian. The two accept all this with equanimity, and, Manet Hall’s secrets revealed, it becomes the setting for predictable and much foreshadowed resolutions.
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal fans will enjoy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14824-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may...
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.
Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fiancé, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She’s recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she’s done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can’t help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona’s life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.Pub Date: July 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-15657-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
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