Delicately sensual East-meets-West historical romance.
The forbidden world of 19th-century China opens its gates to a wandering Scottish lord and the beautiful Eurasian girl who serves as his guide.
Born to a Scottish trader and his Chinese wife, Troth Mei-Lian Montgomery is fluent in both English and Chinese. Although her elderly uncle took her in out of kindness and a sense of duty, he has now forced her to adopt the dress and name of a man in order to spy on the foreigners who throng Canton’s trading companies in search of fortunes in tea and precious goods. But Kyle Renbourne, Viscount of Maxwell, is an adventurer and romantic in search of more than mere wealth. Captivated by the legends of this ancient land, Kyle yearns to journey to its heart to see the mysterious (and fictional) inland temple of Hoshan. He quickly discovers that his guide is a woman, and a lovely one at that, but both must travel in disguise. So Troth leads him to Hoshan, earnestly explaining centuries of Chinese history and customs along the way. Once there, they become lovers but are quickly found out, whereupon Kyle is thrown into prison to await his inevitable execution, though first making Troth his wife with a handclasp ceremony traditional among the Scots. Afterward, Troth goes to Scotland to tell his noble family of his death—although, unbeknownst to her, he’s still alive. He too returns to Scotland, there to battle with the unprincipled trader who cheated Troth’s father long ago and who wants to kill Kyle now. Troth calls upon her kung fu skills to save her love and her life, vanquishing the enemy easily. Putney (The Wild Child, 1999) weaves the threads of her story deftly, with scarcely a pause until the dramatic conclusion. She does her utmost to give her non-English characters dignity and presence, scrupulously avoiding pidgin speech and ethnic stereotyping.
Delicately sensual East-meets-West historical romance.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-345-43335-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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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