A fast read and fun concept suitable for enjoyment year-round.
In this romance, two actors connect on the set of a Christmas movie.
In the small town of Gingerbread Falls, North Dakota, Noelle Butler is ready for Christmas. Young, beautiful, and single, she left the rat race of the city behind to open a popular cafe in her tiny, holiday-loving hometown and is determined to get first place in the window-display contest once again. But Noelle also longs for a special someone, and the Gingerbread Falls dating pool is seriously shallow…until she literally falls into the arms of Carson Stark, a doctor. Noelle and the handsome, sensitive physician quickly form a love connection, but Carson is hiding something important—will his secrecy ruin Noelle’s perfect Christmas? When the cameras stop rolling in the real-life Gingerbread Falls on the set of The Christmas Channel’s newest movie, 27-year-old working actor Carrie Murray (aka Noelle Butler) does her best to avoid Braxton Timothy, Hollywood’s biggest action star, who’s producing the film and playing Carson Stark. Carrie’s well aware of Braxton’s playboy reputation back in Tinseltown, and all she wants is to keep her head down and earn a paycheck on yet another Christmas movie, despite her own aversion to the holiday. But Braxton is persistent, and the town is tiny, so Carrie quickly finds herself catching feelings. Will she finally feel comfortable disclosing her traumatic past to a potential new lover? Mettner crafts two parallel, interdependent stories in a singular novel that’s ideal for those who can’t get enough of Hallmark movies come the holiday season. Carrie is a strong survivor and hero, an actor who doesn’t recognize her own natural talent and strives to keep a low profile despite her ripped-from-the-headlines childhood. But she lands at a crossroads when she realizes her showmance with Braxton might be the real thing. Braxton is not as well developed. He comes across as a little too perfect and evolved (not to mention he tends to explain Carrie’s own feelings to her) and gives a cutesy nickname to his own anatomy.
A fast read and fun concept suitable for enjoyment year-round.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Breaking Night Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Haphazard and undemanding.
A sports agent’s first official client is the man she dumped years ago in college.
After two years of hard work as an underling, Nora Mackenzie is finally being promoted to full-time sports agent. She’s worked hard, kept quiet, and allowed men in the office to call her Mac—a nickname she hates—all to show she’s a team player and “one of the guys.” Unfortunately, her boss instructs her to sign Derek Pender, a football player coming off an injury, who happens to be the man she heartlessly dumped in their senior year of college. Derek signs with her for revenge, seeing it as his opportunity to pay Nora back for callously breaking his heart eight years earlier. He insists she be at his beck and call: answering his emails, running his errands, cooking dinner for his dates. He also refuses to let her explain why she broke up with him without warning or explanation. Nora feels she has no choice but to acquiesce to Derek’s humiliating demands, since she’s worked too hard to let him ruin her dream job. She hopes he’ll thaw and they might become friends, but Derek’s bad behavior is designed to hide the fact that he’s still in love with her. Nora’s characterization is uneven, veering between anger at how she’s treated in the male-dominated field to immature bickering and bantering with Derek. Although Adams likely meant for Derek and Nora’s interactions to have an enemies-to-lovers vibe, the characters instead seem juvenile and stuck in the past. The novel is fueled by a string of tropes—second chance romance! married in Vegas! only one bed!—each randomly deployed to keep the book going despite thin characterization and wan plotting.
Haphazard and undemanding.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723678
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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