A hysterical adventure-romance, with a distinctive voice and a strong protagonist, that takes a tumble at the critical...
A help-desk specialist at a bank in Virginia finds love and adventure while solving the mystery of who’s hacking her company’s computer network.
Hero O’Reilly is named after a character in a Shakespeare play, as are her four sisters. She’s resourceful and gutsy, answering each and every help-desk request with a different name and never using the same moniker twice. Humorously self-deprecating, she’s addicted to Peeps (only in supply during major holidays), the music of Michael Feinstein and the word “hinky”—a techie term for the weird. Plus, she’s ballsy enough to put on platform shoes whenever she meets with attractive but creepy VP Ken Churchill. Hero’s neighbor, landlady and BFF is dog-owner Sally, who’s supportive and amusing in her own right. To celebrate her parents’ 30th wedding anniversary, Hero and her sisters meet for a makeover and professional photo shoot. Suddenly, it’s raining men: friend and coworker Mongrel notices Hero as a woman, FBI agent Mark Falcone pursues her with gusto and smitten photographer Alex might not be gay after all. Hero has so much sex she fears the onset of post-coital dementia. But someone’s hacking into the company’s network and Hero is headed for danger. There’s plenty of goods here, not the least of which is a strong voice and a well-defined central character reminiscent of Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality—a cute, dark-haired, nut-breasted klutz; but then the ignored neophyte gets a new ’do, sees herself in a different way and captures the attentions and affections of a first-rate FBI guy. The book almost oozes with energy. Numerous misspellings, missing words and punctuation errors detract but the meaning is unimpeded. The back story of Hero’s life, romantic interludes and interaction with associates and family—including her devoted parents who lovingly speak Gaelic—holds together well, before taking a slightly silly turn into the overdone procedural of bringing a criminal mastermind to justice. Again like Miss Congeniality, the far-fetched hacker plot doesn’t make a lot of sense, functioning primarily as a device on which to hang the romance–rescue. The last third of the book is an above average mystery–rom-com, which is more than enough for many a reader.
A hysterical adventure-romance, with a distinctive voice and a strong protagonist, that takes a tumble at the critical moment.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1432780999
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Outskirts
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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