Polished albeit slight effort by a collaborative, pseudonymous team of a Famous Author (who did the writing) and a Deserving...
Plump hubby loses it.
Francie Kligler is told she’s the luckiest woman in Pittsburgh: her husband Harry is an excellent cook, devoted father, and does something with computers to make a good living. There are four grown children: Amber, an imperious, impulsive beauty; twins Tina and Trish, who run a hemp-clothing store; and boy genius Jason, who’s about to follow his father and do something computerish at college. An Empty Nest waits, and it’s time for midlife crises—triggered when Harry wins a talking scale in a Christmas raffle. The scale points out that he’s been very naughty, weighing 269 pounds at only five-eight. Francie, however, has always accepted him just as he is and is nonplussed when he begins losing on a low-carb diet. Just as well—the twentysomethings at his computer company were calling him Father Time, even if they do happily parade him before the venture capitalists as a token Mature Person when they plan to take the company public. Harry is caught up in the IPO as well as in his weight-loss group, leaving Francie feeling left out and miffed. Meanwhile, her kids provide welcome distractions: Amber tosses out her father’s beloved cookbooks and Gourmet magazines, the twins return home, and Jason takes up with a pierced person. The progeny decide to send Mom and Dad on a cruise for their 25th anniversary, but Francie is shattered to discover that Harry is, predictably, having an affair with a younger neighbor—whiny, difficult Krys. Francie decides, nyah nyah, to take the cruise anyway, with family friend Tom, an unsuccessful poet who’s a pretty good kisser. That’s about as far as she wants to go, and the romance tanks when the captain sails the ship right into a monster storm. Will Francie survive her seasickness and reunite with Harry? Will Harry realize that fooling around isn’t all that much fun?
Polished albeit slight effort by a collaborative, pseudonymous team of a Famous Author (who did the writing) and a Deserving Friend (who did the plotting). Charming cover and amusing premise should appeal to women of a certain age.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2004
ISBN: 1-4000-4502-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Shaye Areheart/Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2003
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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