The fifth book in Wilde's Cupid series is pretty heavy on the bad boy/good girl trope but manages to mostly make it work.
Kaia Alzate is a veterinary student who loves all animals—wild and domestic. Will her compassion and hope be enough to tame Ridge Lockhart, the wild man of her dreams?
Like many bad boys, Ridge had a rough upbringing. His unmarried mother dropped him off at his father's doorstep before committing suicide. While Duke wasn't especially abusive, Ridge was often overlooked in favor of Duke’s legitimate son. Their rivalry came to an ugly head when Ridge caught his father and his girlfriend, Vivi, with their pants down. After Ridge left, his rage and hurt drove him to work harder, achieve more, and become richer than Duke. The Alzate and Lockhart families' lives are braided together by the Silver Feather Ranch they both love. The two families grew up in Texas' Trans-Pecos region, the Alzates mostly working for the Lockharts. When Ridge finds himself back in Cupid, Texas, to serve as best man for his childhood friend (and current ranch foreman) Archer Alzate, he is also instantly attracted to Kaia, Archer's sister and the kid who followed them around so insistently they nicknamed her the Braterminator. Kaia's family is blessed/cursed with the Song of the Soul Mate, a low ringing that happens when the women in her family kiss their true loves. Predictably, that's exactly what she hears when she and Ridge lock lips for the first time. She knows instantly that she loves him but also that he's married to his job with no plans to stay in Cupid. Could she be enough reason to stay in spite of his terrible relationship with Duke? Turns out she can.
The fifth book in Wilde's Cupid series is pretty heavy on the bad boy/good girl trope but manages to mostly make it work.Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-246821-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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