by Linda Griffin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2021
An unconvincing mystery and love story despite some engaging conversation.
A new guy in town gets tangled up in a murder plot in this contemporary romance.
On Reid Lucas’ first day in a new town, police arrest him for driving under the influence. He uses his phone call to contact a woman he knows named Jane, but instead, he gets her roommate, Alyssa. He talks her into bailing him out, and to make it up to her, he cooks dinner for her, revealing that he’s moved to town for a software engineering job. Alyssa is a cop in the process of getting her marriage annulled. Their relationship might have ended there if not for a shooting at Reid’s new office; Reid is a suspect, but Alyssa is his alibi. They strike up a friendship, and Reid helps Alyssa with an altercation with her soon-to-be ex-husband; she’s grateful for his help, and they later sleep together. A vague possibility that someone wants to kill Reid, but killed his boss by mistake, hangs over the proceedings. When Reid loses his job, he must decide whether to stay in town or move back to Chicago. Alyssa is starchy and judgmental, and although overcoming trust issues is a common romance trope, Alyssa comes off as unsympathetic at times because she’s so humorless. She’s also religious, which makes it curious that she’d be so attracted to Reid, who seems to think marriage vows are merely suggestions. The pair just don’t seem to have much in common, so the story’s conclusion feels forced. Meanwhile, the story’s detectives are almost comically bad at their jobs, jumping to unfounded conclusions about Reid that keep getting him in trouble. Ultimately, the murder plot takes a back seat to the romance and, indeed, is finally solved off-page. The prose is smoothly written, with bits of snappy dialogue, as when Jane asks Reid if chopping onions makes him cry: “ ‘Not if you know the trick,’ he said. ‘Is it a secret?’ ‘Oh, I have lots of secrets,’ he assured her.”However, the plot is messy and illogical and doesn’t entirely hang together.
An unconvincing mystery and love story despite some engaging conversation.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5092-3777-7
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ali Hazelwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to having to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be a part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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PERSPECTIVES
by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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SEEN & HEARD
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