A modern Hollywood do-gooder offers a fun spin on Austen’s classic.
Emma Crawford has it all: fame, fortune, good looks, and charisma.
Fortunately for those around her, she is just as generous as she is wealthy. After helping her friend Weston get his own talk show, Emma realizes she rather enjoys helping others and begins looking for someone new to bestow her guidance upon. Enter Winter White, stage name of Brittany Smith. The cousin of Weston’s makeup artist, she is doe-eyed and blinded by the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. It just so happens that Emma needs a new assistant, preferably one without ties in the industry who could sell her out. An unlikely friendship begins to grow between them, and Emma realizes that Brittany could have a much bigger career than the one she’s hoping for as St. Martin’s, Ohio’s resident meteorologist. However, Liam Price, a beautiful professional soccer player, introduces complications as he informs Emma that maybe what she thinks is best for Brittany isn’t actually what is best for her. Hollywood has its dark side, one that Emma has glimpsed but was luckily sheltered from by her domineering father. As time goes on, Emma starts to realize that she needs to find courage in herself. This dramatic coming-of-age story features solid writing, complex characters, and good pacing. Emma and Brittany are white; Liam is Brazilian and Jewish.
A modern Hollywood do-gooder offers a fun spin on Austen’s classic. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63583-048-4
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
With introspection replacing battles, this extended epilogue gives breathing room between dramatic arcs but is best for...
A glimpse of the characters dealing with rebuilding and fallout after A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017).
In a change of pace from the usual epic struggle against powerful forces, this slimmer-than-usual volume follows the cast during the festive Winter Solstice holiday. Nods to trouble on the horizon (dissent in the Illyrian ranks, Fae courts eyeing for expansion, and a politically fraught situation among humans) remain distant, the lack of progress at times resulting in frustrating repetition. Cassian’s and Mor’s backstories are explored, and prickly Amren’s low-key relationship storyline is supplemented by her High Fae adjustments (including bodily humor). While Elain is becoming more comfortable, she still wants nothing to do with Lucien (who feels like an outsider nearly everywhere and has his hands full with a self-destructive Tamlin). Severely struggling Nesta self-medicates through alcohol, meaningless sex, pushing everyone away, and finding every last seedy corner of the otherwise utopian Velaris. While Rhys handles politics, Feyre’s storyline revolves around Solstice shopping and art’s potential for healing trauma—when the lovers aren’t telepathically sexting or craving each other. Aside from occasional minor characters, most of the inhuman cast seem white. Several plotlines are predictably resolved.
With introspection replacing battles, this extended epilogue gives breathing room between dramatic arcs but is best for readers who’d prefer downtime with the characters over high stakes. (map, preview of next title) (Fantasy. 16-adult)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-631-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
IN THE NEWS
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning.
A romantically entangled stepbrother and stepsister in Los Angeles navigate their tumultuous history and take their relationship to new levels in this translated title by an Argentinian author.
Nick and Noah are madly in love: Their mutual attraction is established as the book opens with Noah’s 18th birthday party, during which she and Nick have an explicitly described sexual encounter behind the pool house. This fiery scene sets the stage for twists and turns in the lovers’ journey, including a separation when Noah is forced to go on a monthlong mother-daughter European tour. But reminders of their pasts (chronicled in the 2023 series opener, My Fault) threaten to undermine their stability. Nick’s wealthy estranged mother makes an unfortunate appearance, while Noah is haunted by the trauma of her father’s violent death. The blend of everyday complications (jealousy, parental disapproval) with frothy visions of high-society life is at once lacking in subtlety and intimately irresistible. The series initially gained popularity on Wattpad, and the novel follows the episodic structure typical of works on that site; sensual encounters occur at reliable intervals. Still, the characters and their milieu feel formulaic, and the writing is stilted. The differences between the two—Nick is five years older and has an office job; Noah has just finished high school—makes their suffocatingly possessive relationship feel particularly squirm-worthy. Nick and Noah and their families read white.
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning. (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728290768
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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