A solid Christmas romance that fans of the series will love, in which the sappy, sweet setting is balanced by the...
Two lonely people find each other again in this classic small-town contemporary romance with a holiday theme.
The 10th installment of the Twilight, Texas series opens in Los Angeles, where Katie Cheek is spending the Christmas holidays after trading homes with Gabi Preston, an online friend whose romance with Katie’s brother was the subject of I’ll Be Home For Christmas (2015). The holiday house-swap is explicitly inspired by the film The Holiday, starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. At a star-studded charity event, Katie runs into her old high school crush, bad boy (and Iraq War vet) Ryder Southerland. Ryder notices immediately that gorgeous Katie is no longer the shy, nerdy girl he once knew, and they enjoy a very hot one-night stand. Their paths cross again the following Christmas when Ryder returns to Twilight to take care of his ailing father, from whom he is estranged. Katie is tired of being a good girl, “moving through life without really planning anything, allowing the wants and desires of other people to push her this way and that,” so she initiates a no-strings-attached sexual relationship with Ryder. For unclear reasons, she rules out love even though their sexual escapades rock her world. Ryder sees himself as independent and proud but has commitment issues stemming from childhood trauma. His character arc is sensitively and compellingly portrayed. Though Twilight is one of those quaint and quirky American small towns that celebrates Christmas with a bewildering array of community events (including “Dickens on the Square”), the holiday theme is surprisingly subtle. Characters from prior installments pop up to offer support and friendly nudging, and a host of other small-town archetypes populate the novel, but the focus remains squarely on Katie and Ryder.
A solid Christmas romance that fans of the series will love, in which the sappy, sweet setting is balanced by the realistically depicted emotional challenges of the hero and heroine.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-231145-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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
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