A friends-to-lovers setup that’s overshadowed by a very bad idea.
The relationship between best friends Abby and Marcus becomes complicated when Abby decides to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother and Marcus agrees to play sperm donor.
Abby Herbert is a popular video game streamer. While it’s a dream job, Abby's real goal is to become a mother; she has even amassed a pile of parenting books and kept a thick binder of important information. When Abby receives news of her declining fertility at the age of 30, she feels like her time to be a mom is now or never. The only problem is that she’s unattached and is having difficulties deciding on a sperm donor. Marcus Ross is Abby’s roommate and best friend. He’s also hopelessly in love with her. He’d do anything to make her dreams a reality and agrees to help her get pregnant. They get on well together, but he makes it clear that he won’t allow Abby to be a single mom. He wants to be just as involved in raising her—their—child. However, the notion of co-parenting as best friends while keeping things strictly platonic is easier said than done. Abby’s chutzpah in taking control of her future is commendable. The main issue with the book is that neither Abby nor Marcus seems mature enough to handle parenthood; when they begin their romance, it feels as if they're hurtling toward a huge mistake. Their apartment can’t accommodate a baby in addition to Abby’s work from home, as her bedroom is also her gaming studio. They ignore a doctor’s advice on having legal precautions in place and attending counseling to make sure they're on the same page about parenting styles. The forward momentum hinges on Abby’s tunnel vision for a baby and Marcus’ being too much of a doormat to his best friend’s whims to speak up.
A friends-to-lovers setup that’s overshadowed by a very bad idea.Pub Date: May 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-335-50495-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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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