Unlikable characters and dog death populate this underwhelming tale.
A man visits an ex-lover dealing with divorce and grief the day her dog is being put to sleep.
Grafton is on his way to Boston to start a new job as a librarian at MIT. On his way, he’s avoiding his girlfriend back in New York, Daphne, with whom he’s had a fight, and stopping by to visit Caroline, an ex-girlfriend with whom he has remained close over the years. Caroline is in a rough way: She’s in the midst of a divorce from her husband, Alec, who's gone back to his first wife after the death of their son. Along with that, her dog, Butter, has to be put down, and today’s the day the vet is coming. Over the span of a day, dogs are lost and found, exes confront each other and absolve each other, and a few mysteries are cleared up, if not forgiven. Flook’s (First Person Female, 2018, etc.) characters are all deeply flawed, but this doesn't make them sympathetic even in the face of all the tragedy going on around them; they're extremely self-absorbed, interested only in dealing with their own problems and goals, caring for others only as far as the others' actions will affect them. Grafton, ostensibly the protagonist, is concerned mainly with sleeping with Caroline and making dumb jokes, along with offering his opinions on the attractiveness of every woman who appears. An extremely uncomfortable date rape joke is brought up repeatedly, and characters tend to think more with their genitals than their brains. Fictional characters don’t need to be likable, but the reader does need a reason to care about what’s happening to them, something that's missing here.
Unlikable characters and dog death populate this underwhelming tale.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-948072-01-4
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Roundabout Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005,...
Murder mixes with anguish in steamy Savannah.
FBI-trained hostage negotiator Phoebe MacNamara is a lieutenant in the Savannah police department. Ever since Phoebe and her family were held hostage when she was 12, her mother has been agoraphobic, and Phoebe and her brother Carter still bear the psychological scars, but Phoebe’s used the memory to hone her skills. While talking a suicidal bartender off a ledge, she meets his boss, Duncan Swift. The charming millionaire coaxes her into meeting for a drink, and their relationship slowly deepens. But life takes a turn for the worse when a misogynist cop botches a hostage situation. Suspended, he blames Phoebe and retaliates by viciously attacking her in the precinct house stairwell. He loses his job, but his father’s connections keep him out of jail. Phoebe is physically and mentally injured, but her family and her blossoming relationship with Duncan help her cope until a dangerous pattern develops: A strange man keeps crossing her path. Dead animals begin appearing on her doorstep. A hostage taker is shot after she talks him into surrendering. Her ex-husband is brutally murdered by the mystery man, who phones her with sadistic threats. Is it the spiteful disgraced cop or someone from her past? Phoebe must identify the killer before he can carry out his final outrage.
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005, etc.).Pub Date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-15434-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.
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 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
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