A sensitively drawn portrait of the healing power of love.
A chance encounter unites two unlikely black soul mates in this debut novel.
For Ruby, it is another hot and humid August afternoon in Harlem. Her day begins with a tour of the neighborhood, rummaging through the trash for trinkets and treasures before the garbage collectors come and take it away. A native of Metairie, Louisiana, Ruby found herself among Harlem’s homeless after a series of tragedies left her destitute. For nearly 20 years, she has followed the same routine, until she encounters a man leaning against the wall of a barbershop. His regal bearing fascinates her and she gives him a gift, a piece of eggplant skin she calls his “skin-mate,” and renames him Eggplant Man. The stranger, LeRoy Vaughn Reed, is a gifted musician who ended up homeless after serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit. Their connection is instant and powerful, but Ruby hesitates to act on her feelings, fearful of her mother’s admonition that “people die and men leave.” Despite her concerns, she is ready to pursue her attraction to LeRoy, and they discover that they have a natural rapport. Happiness is within their grasp when tragedy threatens to separate them forever. De Leaver’s novel is an incisive portrait of two people finding a second chance at hope and love. The narrative focuses exclusively on Ruby and LeRoy and they are nuanced characters whose attraction never feels forced for the sake of the narrative. The author is particularly adept at developing their stories through flashbacks and carefully chosen details, such as Ruby’s strict adherence to a specific radius when looking through garbage, which reveal how they navigate their lives on the streets of Harlem. The prose is spare and lyrical, and effectively incorporates poetry and song lyrics to express Ruby and LeRoy’s innermost hopes and fears (At one point, he muses about his skin color: “Now I walk with head held high / And wisdom under my cap / Knowing that my fear did die /And it’s beautiful to be black”). That said, the book is short and, although De Leaver builds a solid foundation for their relationship, the final chapters move so quickly that additional opportunities for character development are missed.
A sensitively drawn portrait of the healing power of love.Pub Date: June 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4808-4163-5
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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