A vividly imagined but dark dystopian fantasy complete with passionate romance and dangerous alliances.
An intrepid pair has survived the apocalypse, but the worst is yet to come in Roen’s sequel to Last Call for Caviar (2013).
Maya Jade and her lover, Julian, have fled their temporary place of refuge on the French Riviera. Fearing for their safety, they head toward Italy in a battered Land Rover full of weapons and provisions; but Maya cannot escape the dangers she encountered during her time mingling among the Riviera’s jet set. She’s being followed by Slava, a Russian who runs a human-trafficking ring. Julian’s skill as a physician secures the couple safe passage into Italy and finally to the Hautes-Alpes, where he treats the locals and refugees. While Julian is out on an emergency call, an earthquake strikes the area, cutting off all lines of communication. Desperate to find him, Maya enlists the help of Stephan and Laurent, two French military paratroopers. They discover that Julian has been kidnapped by a ruthless and bloodthirsty captain named Jacques Richmond, who’s in league with Slava and planning a covert operation in Monaco. Maya soon realizes her only hope for saving Julian lies with her former lover Abdul. As she renews alliances and faces old dangers in her efforts to free Julian, Maya realizes her feelings for Abdul are more complicated than she had thought. Told in a series of journal entries that span the years 2018-2019, this sequel seamlessly picks up where Last Call for Caviar left off, and the narrative moves with the same intensity. The action is gripping, but there is a grimmer edge to the tragedies unfolding around Maya and Julian. The storms and other ecological disasters have continued unabated, and the desperation and lawlessness have resulted in shocking acts of violence, including rape and cannibalism. Once again, erotic romance plays a major role in the story. Although Maya never questions her love for Julian, she remains conflicted about her feelings toward Abdul. This conflict helps form the basis for an erotic and nuanced love triangle as her involvement with Abdul deepens.
A vividly imagined but dark dystopian fantasy complete with passionate romance and dangerous alliances.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5171-5744-9
Page Count: 360
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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