An uneven set of stories that’s sometimes entertaining and other times troubling.
Griffin offers a collection of four novellas, each featuring a couple that must overcome personal obstacles to make way for love.
The first story, “No Regrets,” opens with a literal bang—Darien Francis, a small-business owner, finds herself in the middle of a bank robbery alongside security guard Richard Li. Afterward, she quickly falls for his easygoing and accommodating nature but finds herself held back by memories of her late lover and the brutality she experienced during the robbery. In the second story, “Probation,” Shane Kenniston, a former youth orchestra teacher, was accused of sexual assault by a 15-year-old girl, resulting in the loss of his job and the destruction of his social life; things become more complicated when he begins dating his former student’s sister, Beth, without initially realizing who she is. Following this is “The Shape of Life,” about a man named David and a single mother named Kate, whose life revolves around caring for her daughter with muscular dystrophy. The final story, “House Hunters,” concerns a group of friends: Frank, a real estate agent estranged from his young daughter; Gia and Andrea, financially successful newlyweds; and Kayla, a woman who believes all men are “useless.” These novellas often offer fun romantic plots with happy endings. However, they sometimes delve too deeply into issues that seem beyond the scope of brief stories. For example, some discussions of race between Darien, a White woman, and Richard, an East Asian man, come across as strained and excessive, as when he earnestly tells her, “I’ll show you how I go about dating Caucasian girls.” However, the storyline between Shane and Beth is the most problematic, presenting a 30-year-old teacher who slept with a teenage girl as sympathetic, while vilifying the girl he slept with. The series’ third-person narration occasionally offers patronizing or objectifying internal monologues, with little attempt to critique such mentalities: “What was it with women, that they thought you shared some kind of relationship the minute things got physical?”
An uneven set of stories that’s sometimes entertaining and other times troubling.Pub Date: April 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781509248827
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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 playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be 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
PERSPECTIVES
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