An entertaining mashup of Bond, beignets, and bondage.
A CIA hit man struggles to protect a woman from a revenge killer—and his own dark desires—in this debut erotic thriller.
Kael Brady, member of The Group, a “division within a division within a division of the CIA,” is in Jamaica, having killed his latest target the night before. He sends Zelie, his Taiwanese “asset” and willing BDSM sex partner, to the spa and meets with fellow agent Luke, another BDSM fan, on the beach. They check out local women, but Kael, somewhat haunted by both his profession and sexual proclivities, seems reserved. Then Rain Howard, a beautiful tourist from Raleigh, North Carolina, enters his view. Kael falls hard and convinces her to extend her vacation, to the dismay of Kael’s departing friend, Charlotte, who was a witness to his killing. The couple spends some sweet, sex-free time together, but the idyll ends when Kael learns that someone is out to take revenge on him and could hurt Rain. Kael leaves the island immediately to track down the potential killer. The novel then jumps ahead two years, with Kael arriving in Raleigh, believing the threat has passed. Rain, initially wary, soon succumbs to his overtures; she also ditches her corporate gig to open a cafe and become a professional beignet maker. She soon learns that she likes having rough sex with Kael. By novel’s end, though, they face a showdown with the surprising killer. Debut author Smith wisely has Zelie say, “What’s the big deal? Thanks to that stupid book, the BDSM lifestyle is totally normalized,” teeing up this novel’s Fifty Shades of Grey–type tone. Indeed, Smith’s erotica should please fans of E.L. James’ work, even if her couple’s enjoyment of asphyxiation may be too edgy for some. Her special-ops plot generally creates excitement, as well, although her use of multiple first-person narrators (mostly Kael and Rain, but also Luke and Charlotte) is ambitious, as is the introduction of an assassination subplot late in the proceedings. Still, Smith has plenty to spur on an ongoing series.
An entertaining mashup of Bond, beignets, and bondage.Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61923-237-2
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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