When a wealthy British publisher decides to fire the staff of his Spanish literary magazine, he sends his son to Madrid to deal with the mess. Chaos ensues.
Inspector Manchego (not his real name, but he likes the way it sounds) is hired by Marlow Craftsman to find his son, Atticus, who's been missing for nearly three months. What follows is a riotous, ridiculous farce of a novel; a work of literature that both pays homage to and makes great fun of classic literature and those who love it. The story is told through flashback as the mystery of Atticus’ disappearance, manufactured by the five fierce female friends who make up the staff of Librarte, is slowly explained and brought into the light. But the mystery is not the point; neither are the love stories, the dramatic reveal of a true literary inheritance, the menace of a piratical villain, the manifestations of Tolkien’s ghost, or the transformation of an uptight British family. It is a novel aswirl in chaos, color, friendship, and, above all, a love of literary tradition and the power of a good story. Unfortunately, this can also be overwhelming. For example, the sexual “explosion” at the end of the novel, while in keeping with good magical realist tradition, also falls somewhat flat as an ending. And the narrative voice can sometimes be more clever than authentically amusing, as in sentences like “The spirit of el duende, the mysterious imp everyone talked about, had seized control of his will to such a degree that he was starting to doubt his true intentions.” But there is no denying the energy and charm that set this novel apart from the pack. The most endearing legacy is the loyal friendship cultivated by the five women of Madrid. Their relationships ring true on the page in a way that the romantic moments sometimes do not.
A novel that defies categorization in both positive and negative ways, but it's sure never boring.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1885-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE
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A clever, romantic, sexy love story.
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The much-loved royal romance genre gets a fun and refreshing update in McQuiston’s debut.
Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the American President Ellen Claremont, knows one thing for sure: He hates Henry, the British prince to whom he is always compared. He lives for their verbal sparring matches, but when one of their fights at a royal wedding goes a bit too far, they end up falling into a wedding cake and making tabloid headlines. An international scandal could ruin Alex’s mother’s chances for re-election, so it’s time for damage control. The plan? Alex and Henry must pretend to be best friends, giving the tabloids pictures of their bromance and neutralizing the threat to Ellen's presidency. But after a few photo ops with Henry, Alex starts to realize that the passionate anger he feels toward him might be a cover for regular old passion. There are, naturally, a million roadblocks between their first kiss and their happily-ever-after—how can American political royalty and actual British royalty ever be together? How can they navigate being open about their sexualities (Alex is bisexual; Henry is gay) in their very public and very scrutinized roles? Alex and Henry must decide if they’ll risk their futures, their families, and their careers to take a chance on happiness. Although the story’s premise might be a fantasy—it takes place in a world in which a divorced-mom Texan Democrat won the 2016 election—the emotions are all real. The love affair between Alex and Henry is intense and romantic, made all the more so by the inclusion of their poetic emails that manage to be both funny and steamy. McQuiston’s strength is in dialogue; her characters speak in hilarious rapid-fire bursts with plenty of “likes,” “ums,” creative punctuation, and pop-culture references, sounding like smarter, funnier versions of real people. Although Alex and Henry’s relationship is the heart of the story, their friends and family members are all rich, well-drawn characters, and their respective worlds feel both realistic and larger-than-life.
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31677-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | LBGTQ
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A young woman in hiding from the Russian mob faces a difficult decision when she falls in love with a cop.
Abigail, 28, lives alone in the bucolic hamlet of Bickford, Ark., in an isolated house, fortified with firearms, a state-of-the-art alarm system and a vicious dog named Bert. When the town’s genial police chief, Brooks, suspects Abigail is packing while shopping for gourmet groceries, his curiosity soon morphs into courtship. Although she finds herself drawn to Brooks and to his welcoming, bohemian family, Abigail dares not reveal that her real name is Liz—which is not the only way in which she appears to be Roberts’ answer to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Gifted with an eidetic memory, an IQ over 200 and an affinity for cool, calculated mayhem, Liz/Abigail is a skilled hacker and a highly paid security consultant. In her spare time she investigates the Russian mob and the crooked federal agents who are responsible for her current predicament; whenever possible, she throws virtual monkey wrenches into the mob’s Internet scams. When she witnesses an altercation between Brooks and the wastrel son of a local magnate, she’s thrust back into the horror of the last time she witnessed a crime. At 16, rebelling against an unloving, controlling mother, Liz and a girlfriend, Julie, visited a Chicago nightclub run by the Russian Mafia, where Ilya, son of gang kingpin Sergei, and Alexi, a cousin, seduced them with Cosmos. Later, at Alexi’s lakeside home, Liz was an unseen witness to a hit on Alexi by Sergei’s enforcers, who also killed Julie. Managing to escape, Liz was forced to run again when two dirty FBI agents destroyed her safe house and murdered her guards. A person of interest to both the Feds and the mob, she’s been on the lam for 12 years. Before they can marry, Brooks must help Liz come in from the cold.
A promising start to a series, provided Roberts can flesh out her derivative heroine.Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-15912-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE
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