An intense and subversive erotic novel.
A sadistic predator abducts a traumatized woman in Newhall’s debut thriller.
As the story opens, Sophie Kingston is still reeling from the death of her boyfriend, Josh, a year ago. She’s a 20-something mental health counselor, and she knows perfectly well that the overwhelming, drowning grief that she’s been feeling isn’t healthy, as she’s constantly consumed by memories of Josh and their time together. To take her mind off her bereavement, her wealthy friend Megan invites her to take a carefree vacation in Costa Rica. But things promptly take a dark turn when Sophie is kidnapped by henchmen of a man named Adrien, who, for the whole of his adult life, has participated in his family’s nefarious trade—kidnapping and “training” female sex slaves for wealthy clients. His first order of business is to break the will of the newest kidnap victims. Usually, his young victims are terrified—and Adrien sees such terror as a trusted tool: “He could recognize fear the way one could recognize one’s own face in a photographed crowd.” But Sophie confounds him, as she’s so thoroughly hollowed-out by her grief that even the terrible experience of being kidnapped barely affects her—and her memories and visions of Josh don’t stop, even her dire situation. Adrien is alarmed and intrigued by her, and the bulk of the rest of the novel compellingly depicts the unlikely, growing attraction between the two. This is a familiar, and ethically queasy, plot structure, but Newhall fleshes it out with depth, and the story’s readability is greatly increased by the engaging growth of Sophie’s character. The attraction between the two is extremely sexual, and the BDSM aspect of the narrative will not appeal to all readers. However, Newhall very smoothly expands the story to encompass the personal, as the two become more drawn to each other.
An intense and subversive erotic novel.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9974336-2-3
Page Count: 422
Publisher: wgcordaro publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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