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
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Readers will devour this swoonworthy romance in one sitting.
Two talented chess players challenge each other on and off the board in bestselling author Hazelwood’s YA debut.
Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer.
Readers will devour this swoonworthy romance in one sitting. (author’s note) (Romance. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780593619919
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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