A touching winter-spring romance amid full Western regalia.
A calculatingly sweet, hard-not-to-like debut set amid the dusty, manly rodeo circuit of Cheyenne, Wyo., by the author of Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America (2001).
Burana tosses in all the elements here for a compelling, one-handed summer sizzler: big-sky country, horny rodeo riders and their roadies—the sexy, easygoing ubiquitous “buckle bunnies” who turn up in skimpy tops and don't mind when their cowboy is married—and lots of beer-swilling in raunchy roadside watering holes that hold Bikini Bull Ride competitions for the regulars. Daryl Heatherly, at 23, a graduate of Colorado State and an aspiring painter with a belly ring and hair to her waist, heads out from Denver, after a nasty breakup from her novelist boyfriend who didn’t appreciate her, and takes off for Cheyenne, where her older brother, Jace, has to ready the family homestead for sale. Their parents divorced years before, leaving Jace, a recovering drug addict and secret homosexual, to keep the horse-farm running. But times are hard, and the rapacious real-estate agent is scratching at the door. Daryl finds a job cleaning rooms at the local Twin Pines motel, and settles back easily into her clutch of good-time girlfriends, like the irrepressible Kimber, divorced with a kid she sends back to her ex for the summer so she can find herself a cowboy. Soon, Daryl finds her own rodeo rider to love: J.W. Jarrett, a compact 41-year-old ex-champion with plenty of buckles and scars to prove it. Divorced, with a young son named Troy, J.W. is struggling honorably to make a living in the relentless Western rodeo circuit, but still lives in the shadow of his more glamorous, successful older brother, Duff Linsey, a cowboy-turned-movie-actor. A love affair grows between the grizzled old cowboy and his sweet girl: He calls her “precious” and she calls him “Daddy.” Burana once again has done her research.
A touching winter-spring romance amid full Western regalia.Pub Date: July 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-35505-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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