A thrilling tale about an independent woman in a love triangle.
In this novel, a college student find herself pursued by three intriguing men, including her longtime crush.
Kinsley Fallon Hayes, an all-around “good girl” and Olympic-level runner, is getting ready to graduate from a master’s program. To earn money, she works as a bartender at a local tavern. Kinsley has been infatuated with Jase Taylor, her best friend’s brother, since she was a child. But since he has always rebuffed her advances, she feels as if she’s going to be in the friend zone with him forever. That all changes when his best friend, Rustin Keane, and Klive King, the head of Nightshade, a crime syndicate, show up and start trying to woo Kinsley. As she flirts with the three men, Kinsley must decide whether she wants to get to know Klive better, go on a date with Jase, or entertain Rustin’s interest in her while navigating her moral beliefs about her sexual desires and her Christian faith. Will Kinsley pick safety or jump headfirst into the unknown? The pace of the story is dictated by quick wit and banter throughout the novel, which makes it easy for readers to stay engaged with the plot and its details. Layne also injects the series opener with suspense. At one point, Klive breaks into Kinsley’s apartment to look for a potential stalker. After he manages to throw the intruder out, Kinsley comes home unexpectedly and Klive rushes to hide in her laundry closet. The intermingling of Kinsley’s monologue, her phone conversation with a friend, and Klive’s internal musings accurately paints the scene for readers, who will be on the edges of their seats wondering if he will be discovered. Similarly, the drama that ensues in the bar, the romantic buildup (and jealousy) between Jase and Kinsley, and the passionate, mysterious aura between Klive and the protagonist are so well written that readers will easily imagine themselves in the middle of the action.
A thrilling tale about an independent woman in a love triangle.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7353223-4-6
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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