Great fun from start to finish.
After a nobleman’s heart is broken by his best friend’s sister, opportunities for scandal abound in the newest Birch Hall romance (A Lady's Guide to Ruin, 2015).
From Page 1, Colin Spenser, Marquess of Farleigh, is fretfully in love with Elinor Hargrove, whom he’d watched grow from an “irritating, nosy twig of a girl” into a 25-year-old beauty. He is minutes late trying to win her heart, however, beaten to a proposal by Matthew Newburne, a rival he didn’t know he had. Although Matthew dies tragically before he and Elinor can marry, Colin has given up on Elinor, and five years later he agrees to an engagement to a young Lady Penelope. Elinor, meanwhile, is once again a guest at the Farleigh estate, looking after Colin’s energetic teenage sister, Phoebe. As it turns out, Phoebe has discovered some mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of their older sister, Marie, in India several years earlier; she blames a rake named Edward Foyle and wants revenge. Separately, Colin has his own suspicions about his sister’s death and wants a very different form of revenge. As a close friend of the family, Elinor wants to get to the bottom of these mysterious rumors but also wants to keep Phoebe out of trouble and Colin from dying in a duel with Edward Foyle. In order to get to the villain in question, Elinor and Colin both end up, unbeknownst to each other, at a scandalous party involving “decadent displays of wealth, sex, and gluttony.” The notion of scandal is everywhere in this charming novel, and at times the reader has the entertaining dilemma of wondering what the real scandal will be. The sex comes rather late but it doesn’t disappoint. Elinor and Colin are well-matched in wit, vulnerability, and awkward sexual desire, and the mystery of Marie’s death in India is resolved in a satisfying and surprising way.
Great fun from start to finish.Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-98681-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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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