A sexy romance that includes a moving peek at post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt but tempers intense emotionalism...
Two wounded souls leverage a gym flirtation into a lighthearted fling, but when their feelings intensify, they must decide if the time has come to break through their grief and guilt to embrace love and happiness.
Gavin Donnigan (brother of Landon from A Sure Thing, 2016) has been working as a trainer and self-defense instructor for the nine months since he returned home from the Marines. It’s easy work he enjoys, but more important, it’s giving him the space he needs to heal from his physical and emotional injuries. Zoe—aka the pretty girl at the gym who wears Pink Yoga Pants but shoots Gavin down when he asks her out—is mourning the death of her twin sister, Aubrey, and doesn’t want anything to do with the hot trainer with a reputation as a player. Yet one day, after Zoe asks Gavin to give her some private instruction for a missed self-defense class, she decides to take a page out of her spontaneous sister’s playbook and accepts his invitation for a date. Then, after he surprises her by taking her to a beautiful garden and doesn’t try to get her into bed, she takes a second look at her preconceptions and likes the character she sees beneath the man’s gorgeous exterior. So begins a courtship that both parties try to tell themselves doesn’t really mean anything, but when Zoe realizes she’s in love with Gavin, it forces him to face some deep trauma. Failure may mean losing the one woman he wants but isn’t sure he deserves, though Zoe won’t give him up without a fight.
A sexy romance that includes a moving peek at post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt but tempers intense emotionalism and sensuality with sweet and comedic elements.Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3188-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
