Gimmicky romp about letting life surprise you. Gruenenfelder (Misery Loves Cabernet, 2009, etc.) too often relies on sitcom...
Three best friends find their lives taking unexpected turns after a bridal shower game goes awry.
Bride-to-be Nicole thinks she has it all figured out when she rigs a “cake pull” for 23 of her closest pals. This tradition (think fortune cookie) has each lady pulling a “charm” out of the layers of a cake, with each charm symbolizing the puller’s near future. Sounds simple enough, until the guests pull charms other than the ones Nicole pre-selected for them. That means math teacher Mel, who craves a commitment, does not get the engagement ring she wanted, but rather a red-hot chili pepper, symbolizing passion. Soon after, she actually does get a proposal from her longtime boyfriend Fred, followed by the discovery that Fred is a serial cheater, with a string of gals in various locations. Suddenly single, Mel puts herself out on the market, with mixed results. Museum fundraiser Seema, secretly smitten with her hunky best friend Scott, was supposed to get the lusty pepper, but she nabs a shovel, for hard work, instead. And writer Nicole is shocked to get the baby carriage. Not that Nicole is totally against the idea of children, she just does not feel ready to be a mom. Besides, her fiancé Jason, an assistant coach for the NBA, already has two young girls of his own, from his previous marriage. But when Jason’s ex lands a demanding job out of town, Nicole becomes the primary caregiver to Malika and Megan. She adores them, but step-parenthood tests her every which way, putting a strain on her relationship with Jason. Meanwhile, Seema, who isn’t the superstitious type and doesn’t really care about the stupid shovel anyway, gets tired of watching the man she loves date other women, and decides to risk everything by revealing her true feelings.
Gimmicky romp about letting life surprise you. Gruenenfelder (Misery Loves Cabernet, 2009, etc.) too often relies on sitcom one-liners, but her women are smart, likable and good to each other.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-61459-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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