Purity-movement Christians will best appreciate this wish-fulfillment tale.
A young, widowed chief financial officer falls for her new company’s maintenance man, not realizing that he’s really the CEO, in Chalupnik’s debut romance.
Abby Sinclair watches a youth pastor pull apart two glued-together pieces of Styrofoam, leaving bits stuck together on each side: “this is what happened every time you had sex with someone; part of you stuck to that other person,” he says, adding that having premarital sex means that you’re “not a whole person anymore.” Abby is both a widow and a virgin, her husband having died in a terrible accident two hours after their wedding. She has a master’s degree and a doctorate in finance, and has recently secured her first position out of school—as CFO for a chain of luxury resorts. Here, Chalupnik exhibits naïveté about the executive suite: CFO isn’t an entry-level position, and they must consult closely with CEOs. Nevertheless, Abby vaults into her plum job without ever meeting the resorts’ chief executive and owner, Rob Stevenson. He’s a tall, handsome, “self-made billionaire”—in that he inherited great wealth and increased it. When Abby meets Rob by chance, she takes him to be from the maintenance department; he introduces himself as “Bob York.” Rob knows that there’s something different about Abby, and that “he could never take advantage of her.” But the author then has “Bob” take advantage of her ignorance as he continues the pretense. Abby repeatedly finds luxury “breathtaking,” but still considers herself “really just a simple girl.” When an embezzlement investigation endangers Abby, Rob finally reveals his identity, offers protection, and introduces her to family. His playboy reputation, it turns out, is just a cover; in fact, he’s still a virgin. Chalupnik shows him to be thoughtful about prayer (“he hated when people used God as some Genie” to grant wishes), which is a strength of the book, as it gives a bit more dimension to his character. A misunderstanding delays the growing romance, but Abby’s pure faith works wonders: Rob stops drinking and “cussing”; he and his father are reconciled. Abby is rewarded for her purity with enormous wealth, a handsome young husband, and a honeymoon that’s worth the wait.
Purity-movement Christians will best appreciate this wish-fulfillment tale.Pub Date: April 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-3538-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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