Perennial red-hot romantic-suspense favorite Foster hits the mark with this complicated page turner that, in less deft...
An undercover cop courts his plain-Jane neighbor to track her brother, a suspected criminal and witness to his best friend’s murder, but finds the tables turned when he falls for her, then must protect her after his investigation sets her against him and puts all of them in mortal danger.
Detective Logan Riske will do anything to solve the murder of his best friend, a local politician who stood up to the resident crime lord. Discovering the whereabouts of the frumpy sister of the man rumored to have witnessed the crime, Logan moves in next door and puts the full force of his good looks and magnetic personality toward gaining her trust; to his surprise, they embark on an explosive sexual relationship. Pepper’s lonely, difficult past blunts her ability to trust people, but something about her new neighbor makes her want to try. She knows getting close to anyone is dangerous, especially now, with so much at stake. But Logan’s a construction worker and a damn fine specimen, at that. What harm could there possibly be in a little sexual release? When the truth comes out and her brother Rowdy is arrested, Pepper vanishes in an attempt to take matters into her own hands in order to save him. Logan realizes he’s misjudged Pepper’s determination and Rowdy’s honor and, moreover, that his miscalculation and Pepper’s subsequent actions have put them all in peril—especially the amazing, enigmatic woman he’s come to love. Now he’ll have to find her, save her, and convince her that despite their rocky, dishonest start, his feelings are genuine, and once they’ve dealt with the threat hanging over them, he’s ready to spend the rest of his life proving it to her.
Perennial red-hot romantic-suspense favorite Foster hits the mark with this complicated page turner that, in less deft hands, could have been easily mishandled, but generally reads like a sexy, believable roller coaster of action and romance.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-373-77695-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.
In Roberts’ new series launch, the conversion of a tumbledown Maryland hotel into a boutique country inn fails to expel an extremely shy resident ghost.
The first half of the novel, essentially an extended prologue, is painstakingly slow. As Roberts demonstrates a newfound passion for construction minutia (perhaps because she renovated and owns Inn Boonsboro in real life), the activities of architect Beckett Montgomery and his two builder brothers as they retrofit a historic building in Boonsboro (near the Antietam battlefield) unfold almost in real time. Working under the supervision of their benevolent tyrant of a mother, the brothers exchange good-natured macho gibes as they appoint the Inn-to-be with the most opulent tile, woodwork and fixtures. Amid all the bromance, Beckett watches longingly as his crush since grade school, Clare, goes about running her amazingly profitable independent bookstore while raising three unruly boys alone. (Her soldier husband died in Iraq.) Does she or doesn’t she notice him, Beckett muses ad infinitum. Meanwhile, Clare tells herself that Beckett is not really interested, just being kind to a war widow. Once this minor miscommunication is cleared up, the two begin a tentative relationship, however, the necessity of introducing obstacles to true love has Roberts stretching for things for them to squabble about, including the sighting by Clare’s youngest son of a ghostly lady dressed in an old-timey long gown, staring from an upper story window of the Inn. (The ghost, nicknamed “Lizzy,” has betrayed her presence to Beckett and a few others only with a scent of honeysuckle and a penchant for opening doors.) Cartoonish villain Sam, the spoiled, indolent son of the area’s wealthiest family, stalks Clare and tries to take indecent liberties, but his belated appearance, and his failure to pose a believable threat, do little to propel the plot. The fictional doppelganger of Boonsboro is an anachronistic bubble, seemingly untouched by the blight besetting so many American small towns.
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24321-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a...
An unhappily married couple spends a year apart in Reid’s (Forever, Interrupted, 2013) novel about second chances.
When we meet Lauren, she and her husband, Ryan, are having a meltdown trying to find their car in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium after a game. Through a series of flashbacks, Lauren reveals how the two of them went from being inseparable to being insufferable in each other’s eyes—and in desperate need of a break. Both their courtship and their fights seem so ordinary—they met in college; he doesn’t like Greek food—that the most heartbreaking part of their pending separation is deciding who will get custody of their good-natured dog. It’s not until Ryan moves out that the juicy details emerge. Lauren surreptitiously logs into his email one day, in a fit of missing him, and discovers a bunch of emails to her that he had saved but not sent. Liberated by Ryan’s candor, Lauren saves her replies for him to find, and the two of them read each other’s unfiltered thoughts as they go about their separate lives. Neither character holds anything back, which makes the healing process more complex, and more compelling, than simply getting revenge or getting one’s groove back. Meanwhile, as Lauren spends more time with her family and friends, she explores the example set for her by her parents and learns that there are many ways to be happy. It’s never clear until the final pages whether living alone will bring Lauren and Ryan back together or force them apart forever. But when the year is up, the resolution is neither sappy nor cynical; it’s arrived at after an honest assessment of what each partner can’t live with and can’t live without.
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a committed relationship.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1284-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Washington Square/Pocket
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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