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THE WHOLE PACKAGE

There's enough plot and strong writing to make it readable but not enough substance to make it memorable.

Reid Griffith and Naomi Starr are married to their jobs, but a mutually beneficial relationship quickly blossoms both in the office and in the bedroom.

Reid's moving company, Vets on the Go!, is a small but successful enterprise that quickly takes off after his brother, Cash, is caught on camera saving a kid and foiling a robbery. Reid has always been concerned with responsibility and doing the right thing as a son, a brother, a soldier, and now as the owner of a business that helps vets adjust to civilian life. Naomi, of Starr PR, is managing on her own after having left her former job and a relationship with her boss when her success proved a threat to both. After seeing footage of Cash's heroic rescue, Naomi sets up a meeting and offers her services to Reid, whom she is immediately attracted to. While dealing with the chemistry between them and their respective workloads, Reid and Naomi are also juggling outside complications. Reid's mother passes away, and he and Cash are left to deal with the practicalities of death as well as their grief. Naomi is forced to work alongside her ex-boyfriend/boss when they're both hired by a firm she's hungry to work with. The sex is hot enough, and Harte is to be applauded for an attempt to normalize safer sex and good communication about boundaries, but those are by far the highlights of the book. The conflicts are a little superficial and either easily or unsatisfactorily resolved.

There's enough plot and strong writing to make it readable but not enough substance to make it memorable.

Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4926-7044-5

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019

Categories:
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LOVE AND OTHER WORDS

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

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THE UNHONEYMOONERS

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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