Would-be seamstresses achieve self-realization through free-form couture, in the second of Cano-Murillo’s Crafty Chica series (Waking Up in the Land of Glitter, 2010).
Miss Scarlet Santana (named after a character in the game Clue, not Gone with the Wind) is the wild card in a family of high-achieving Latinos in Glendale, Ariz. Although she has two engineering degrees, she prefers to work in a fashion atelier under the hawkish gaze of her boss Carly. On the side, she sews her own product line, Mexibilly Frocks, and has developed unique methods of custom-fitting women. Scarlet’s guiding spirit, the inspiration for her blog, Daisy Forever, is Daisy de la Flora, a designer of retro kitsch clothes who got her start as a fan of Carmen Miranda’s flamboyant style. Scarlet needs to raise money because she has just won a coveted place in an NYC design school run by Daisy’s nephew, Johnny “Scissors” Tijeras. Daisy is a recluse; she entrusted her enterprises to Johnny’s dubious management when she decided, in her later years, to travel the world helping underprivileged women. Publicized by her blog, Scarlet’s class attracts a motley crew of apprentices. Among them: Mary Theresa, a buttoned-down yuppie whose home life is crashing down around her because her house-husband Hadley has rebelled. She’s recently been demoted to telecommuter because her micromanagement has demoralized her office-mates. Feisty septuagenarian Rosa appears to have Scarlet’s class on her bucket list. Rosa also knows far more than she lets on about Scarlet’s idol Daisy, which sets up a surprising plot twist. With wit and sass reminiscent of Fannie Flagg, Cano-Murillo manages to extract much mirth from her cast of craftsters, each striving to transcend restrictive patterns in life (as well as dressmaking) and to defeat family expectations that are squelching self-expression. Too often, though, the humor is deadened by preachy affirmations and new-age bromides. Veers dangerously into Mary Engelbreit territory.
Pub Date: March 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-446-50923-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2011
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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