Never mind the newlyweds: this slight though poignant romance keeps the emotional reunion of the older lovers at its heart.
From Eagle (The Last Good Man, 2001, etc.): Lonely mother of a bride-to-be wonders about her ex.
Seems love is in the air, now that Camille DeLonga has an unexpected wedding to plan, her beautiful daughter Jordan being engaged to handsome James Mayfield. Camille can’t find anything to disapprove of: James is charming, responsible, hard-working, and thirty. Too old for seven-years-younger Jordan? Maybe. Camille muses ruefully over her own failed marriage to Creed Burke, Jordan’s part-Indian father, not so sure now that divorcing him was absolutely necessary. They did love each other, but living together just didn’t work, and each has done well since they parted ways: Camille is a successful sculptor, Creed a popular guitarist whose country-western band, Only The Lonely, will play at the wedding. That’s one less detail to worry about as plans become more complicated by the minute. Camille’s best friend Bridget, a paragon of well-off suburban womanhood, is better at this sort of thing, but Camille can do without Bridget’s bossiness. And Camille’s mother Rosemary is suffering quietly through her cancer treatments; the plucky old lady isn’t going to let them stop her from enjoying her granddaughter’s wedding. Minor decisions seem major as time ticks away: Should they go for lattice panels with fairy lights as decorations? How about curly willow in floor pots? And about that cake . . . Camille balks when she finds that a tiered wedding cake costs upward of a thousand. Dissuaded by more experienced friends from baking it herself, Camille forges on, suddenly ready to spend more than a little money on a classy, sexy suit. No dowdy mother-of-the-bride chiffon get-ups for her . . . after all, she’ll be dancing with Creed. But she almost misses the ceremony, until the cake man gets her to the church on time—in a bakery truck.
Never mind the newlyweds: this slight though poignant romance keeps the emotional reunion of the older lovers at its heart.Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-621472-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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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