Another steamy, sex-positive jaunt involving career challenges and steamy fantasies.
Rea’s erotic-fiction series entry finds its middle-aged protagonist battling tougher personal demons.
This provocative sequel to Nights of Alice (2021) resumes the story of sensual, resilient Alice Hightower, who, as she nears 50, finds herself in a multifaceted conundrum. Her standing as CEO of medical device company Excellcardia is suddenly in jeopardy due to an industrial espionage incident. However, that development pales in comparison to the discovery that she’s eight weeks pregnant, after which her love and former assistant Jonathan immediately abandons her, right in the gynecologist’s office. Desperate for fun and bored of dating disappointing men, Alice regularly partakes in the nocturnal fantasies afforded her by a time-traveling portal and vintage costumes in her guest-room closet. Her career problems resolve themselves as co-executive and former lover Bradley James assumes her CEO position, but he finagles another job for her as leader of the business’s osteopathic arm. He also rekindles their torrid affair. This sequel is as unfettered as the debut, and it doesn’t shy away from putting Alice into a wide range of vivid, sexually explicit escapades. Included are dalliances involving a polyamorous genie and Japanese geishas, and colorful locales include a 13th-century battlefront, a Samoan tropical island paradise, and an orbiting space station that offers some titillating zero-gravity lovemaking. One question lingers throughout: Could Alice’s adventures be hallucinations? Only her best friend, Susan, and new cat, Dolly, know for certain. Overall, Rea is an entrancing storyteller who’s in fine form again in this series installment, effectively embellishing Alice’s character with enhanced maturity, responsibility, and more self-awareness than ever. It results in a book that’s entertaining, notably sexy, and eventually uplifting.
Another steamy, sex-positive jaunt involving career challenges and steamy fantasies.Pub Date: July 20, 2022
ISBN: 979-8886530148
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This slightly smutty monster romance feels more like a spectacle than a deliberately paced story.
A woman travels to Scotland to unravel her late father’s past and meets a grumpy Scotsman with his own secrets.
Keyanna MacKay was brought up by a single father who was always tight-lipped about his upbringing, so when he dies, she’s left with no family. Key decides that learning about his life before he left Scotland would be a good way of keeping his memory close and perhaps connecting with long-lost relatives. She discovers a grandmother and other extended family in Scotland, but they’re hardly welcoming. “I know who you are....And you shouldn’t have come,” are the first words her grandmother says to her. Lachlan Greer has little patience for the American he’s already written off as clueless. When he witnesses Key’s snubbing by her family members, his grumpy demeanor gives way to begrudging pity, and he starts helping her navigate the local community and try to build a bridge to her grandmother. At first, this book seems to be a contemporary romance with light magical undertones involving a family’s mysterious curse, but it quickly devolves into a monster romance heavy on shock value. While monster romance can be fun, it doesn’t work here. Key and Lachlan’s chemistry is bumpy, and the pace of their relationship as they go from disastrous first impressions to a happily ever after is all over the place. Ferguson tries to combine too many elements—including a grumpy-meets-sunshine pairing, a mystery with sensitive family dynamics, and the complicated logistics of falling in love with a cryptid—leaving several threads not fully resolved. The setting is the most positive element, with Scotland’s lush greenery providing the perfect whimsical background for hunting down long-buried family secrets.
This slightly smutty monster romance feels more like a spectacle than a deliberately paced story.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593816851
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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