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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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