An enjoyable, intelligent read that triumphs over its minor shortcomings.
An unexpected romance blossoms during a murder investigation in Geiger’s debut mystery.
When anchorwoman Michelle Osher is found nearly decapitated in her expensive apartment, suspicion focuses immediately on her husband, Paul. Police uncover a pattern of calls linking Paul to Sheyla Samonte, an entertainer at a nightclub called Pearls of Asia that features transgendered entertainers. Samonte quickly joins the suspect list when it is discovered that she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle on Paul’s dime, leaving police to wonder whether she wanted a promotion from mistress to wife. When Samonte refuses to cooperate unless Homicide Inspector Mac Fleet takes her to brunch, Fleet knows he needs to regain control of the investigation. That’s easier said than done, as he grows increasingly infatuated with Samonte. Convinced of her innocence, Fleet devotes himself to finding the real killer. The ensuing investigation uncovers infidelities, betrayals and a host of people who might want Michelle Osher dead. Geiger centers much of the action on the Pearls of Asia entertainers, whom he generally portrays with emotional depth and complexity. Occasionally, though, Geiger gives in to the temptation of cheap titillation and offers readers one-dimensional, hypersexual caricatures of the transgendered women. His writing style is similarly uneven. The book begins with snappy lines—"the gourmet kitchen was bigger than his first apartment, and it looked as though it made more reservations than recipes" and “jalapeno and garlic was the best California combination since Beach and Boy”—but later in the story, the witticisms focus primarily on crude sexual innuendos (“does that mean I get to go down on your periscope?” or “[she] called me right as my Latin boyfriend was rolling over to give me ‘room service’”). However, these small missteps do little to detract from the overall appeal of this fast-paced romp that has plenty of plot twists. Geiger deftly balances the murder investigation with the developing relationship between Fleet and Samonte until the book’s end, which rushes to a barely credible and somewhat unsatisfying resolution.
An enjoyable, intelligent read that triumphs over its minor shortcomings.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463587567
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.
The much-loved royal romance genre gets a fun and refreshing update in McQuiston’s debut.
Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the American President Ellen Claremont, knows one thing for sure: He hates Henry, the British prince to whom he is always compared. He lives for their verbal sparring matches, but when one of their fights at a royal wedding goes a bit too far, they end up falling into a wedding cake and making tabloid headlines. An international scandal could ruin Alex’s mother’s chances for re-election, so it’s time for damage control. The plan? Alex and Henry must pretend to be best friends, giving the tabloids pictures of their bromance and neutralizing the threat to Ellen's presidency. But after a few photo ops with Henry, Alex starts to realize that the passionate anger he feels toward him might be a cover for regular old passion. There are, naturally, a million roadblocks between their first kiss and their happily-ever-after—how can American political royalty and actual British royalty ever be together? How can they navigate being open about their sexualities (Alex is bisexual; Henry is gay) in their very public and very scrutinized roles? Alex and Henry must decide if they’ll risk their futures, their families, and their careers to take a chance on happiness. Although the story’s premise might be a fantasy—it takes place in a world in which a divorced-mom Texan Democrat won the 2016 election—the emotions are all real. The love affair between Alex and Henry is intense and romantic, made all the more so by the inclusion of their poetic emails that manage to be both funny and steamy. McQuiston’s strength is in dialogue; her characters speak in hilarious rapid-fire bursts with plenty of “likes,” “ums,” creative punctuation, and pop-culture references, sounding like smarter, funnier versions of real people. Although Alex and Henry’s relationship is the heart of the story, their friends and family members are all rich, well-drawn characters, and their respective worlds feel both realistic and larger-than-life.
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31677-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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