There’s more than a faint whiff of desperation in all this self-conscious decadence. Lackluster effort from the author of...
Thirtyish devotee of London fetish clubs looks for love.
Hardworking publicist for trendy chefs and cookbooks by day, rubber-clad slut by night, Juliet Cooper would rather snog than flog—unlike her best friend Mel, who enslaves pathetic single men for fun and whips the married ones for money. Both are utterly blasé about this no-longer-underground pastime, but Juliet is beginning to wonder whether there’s more to life than snorting coke and having casual sex with brutish strangers. What is the point, when no one at the office even asks who gave you the bright red hickeys on your neck? She supposes—yawn, yawn—it’s just as well they can’t see the bruises everywhere else. (Note to worried mothers: Juliet, a sensible girl at heart, brings along a warm zip-up on these freaky outings so as not to catch a chill.) Well, Juliet’s little romp with the giant Dutch stud in leather pants was interesting while it lasted, but she thanks her lucky piercings that she doesn’t have to see him again. Brace yourselves, angels of darkness, for a now-standard chick-lit epiphany: Could it be that she is skittish about commitment? How utterly fascinating and original of her. She must talk this over with her bored-out-of-their-vinyl-corsets chums immediately. Oh, no! Her only normal friend, Gillian, is divorcing her boring husband, so obviously marriage is as meaningless as everything else. So, anyway, should Jules date androgynous Liam, the hyperactive celebrity chef who loves to flaunt the new tattoo on his perfect buttocks (oh, Lord, he sleeps with everyone) or succumb to the charms of Alex, an architect?
There’s more than a faint whiff of desperation in all this self-conscious decadence. Lackluster effort from the author of the Sam Jones mystery series (Pretty Boy, 2002, etc.).Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7434-6468-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Downtown Press/Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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
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