Though the book's four-protagonist, four-author concept keeps the book feeling fresh, each section suffers from repetitive...
Four female college juniors share a house—and newly dramatic love lives—in this new-adult romance written by four separate authors in four distinct sections that focus on each woman's love story.
Misha, Indy, Courtney and Chloe are very different (but all breathtakingly gorgeous) young women living under one Michigan roof as they prepare for what they hope will be their very best year at college. They each have demons they're trying to transcend. Misha recently endured the humiliation of her neighbor crush–next-door leaking her sex tape; Indy is using reckless drinking, partying and hookups to help forget her longtime boyfriend's devastating infidelity; Courtney feels less than trustful toward men, particularly the jocks who frequent the sports bar where she waitresses; and Chloe craves escape from a tightly controlled life under her mother's nagging thumb. The women's individual struggles are just background noise for the crucial inner heartbeat of the book, however. That heartbeat, naturally, would be...boys. Specifically, four “[b]eautiful…commanding” college boys, Darryn, Kier, Dalton and Blake, all single, manly and preoccupied with “saving” the perfectly capable college women they fall for. The book’s four sections are told from the points of view of both members of each couple (for example: Part 1, “Behind Her Eyes,” is recounted in alternating chapters by Misha and Darryn), and the “male” chapters sometimes feel laughable in their attempts at casual bro-speak.
Though the book's four-protagonist, four-author concept keeps the book feeling fresh, each section suffers from repetitive word choices (if we never read the term "deepen the kiss" again, it will be too soon) and sometimes-rote plotlines that lean too heavily on gender stereotypes.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-451-47192-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.
Brown (Mean Streak, 2014, etc.) ticks off the boxes that elevate her books to the bestseller lists in this sexy romantic thriller set in Texas.
Rock-jawed hero with a dark past: check. Strong-willed, beautiful woman who resists his charms: check. A Whitman’s Sampler of bad guys: check. And finally, a convoluted and not always plausible plot: check. In this latest outing, readers meet TV journalist Kerra Bailey, whose family was torn apart years ago by a hotel bombing that killed 197 people in Dallas. Just in time for the 25th anniversary, Kerra scores an interview with the notoriously private Maj. Trapper, who saved her life, among others, when he emerged from the blast to lead the survivors out of danger. There's an iconic, prizewinning photo of the major carrying a little girl from the wreckage, but the child has never been identified—until now, when Kerra goes public with the information that it was her. Just after they finish filming the interview in his home, the major is shot, and an injured Kerra escapes in the confusion. The major’s son, disgraced Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent John Trapper—a name M*A*S*H fans will appreciate—steps in, igniting a chain of events that leads to murder, intrigue, betrayal, and a series of dark revelations. As with most of Brown’s heroes and heroines, there’s palpable sexual tension between Trapper, whose taut rear occupies ample literary real estate, and Kerra, who when dealing with Trapper feels “like he’d lightly scratched her just below her bellybutton” when he’s not making her “pleasure points throb.” The complex plot plays out in a round of reveals that don’t always make a lot of sense, but that’s not why Brown’s fans read her books. They check in for the witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fluid writing. A master of her genre, Brown knows how to please her most ardent readers but relies too often on the same basic formula from novel to novel.
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4555-7210-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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