Mark this one on your calendar.
In his first year alone, a handsome widower begins a May-December romance with an adorable boyfriend in the latest installment of the Bluewater Bay series.
After his husband’s death, 40-something Garrett Blaine quits his accounting job, moves from Seattle to the small town of Bluewater Bay, and takes up bartending at a local pub. There, he finds 20-something Jesse Brooks drinking soda by himself after his date stands him up. It’s not the first time Jesse has been in this position—he’s HIV-positive, and not everyone he’s dated has been cool with that. But Garrett is different. He’s older, wiser, and no stranger to illness thanks to his late husband. He even likes video games and comics, which is great for Jesse, who works at a comic book store. Rather than a tear-jerker, this is the story of a functional relationship with a few extra kinks. The first half of the book is almost too light on tension, as the two men hit it off from their first meeting, but the second half gets to the heart of the conflict—caring for a sick person is devastating, and every time Jesse so much as coughs, Garrett flashes back to the last helpless moments of his husband’s short life. Thoughtless comments from friends and family members also make Garrett wonder if this new relationship is happening “too soon” and, worse, that Jesse is too much like his late husband. Told in alternating perspectives, the narrative shifts seamlessly and evenly between Jesse and Garrett, like two men expertly passing the baton in the relay race of love. Jesse is lively and bold, while Garrett is reserved but sympathetic and caring, and together they generate plenty of heat. The revelation in the final chapter makes the story well worth reading to the end.
Mark this one on your calendar.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62649-695-8
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Riptide
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
