A high-heat romance between a pert LA woman and rough mountain man.
Wild (Misadventures of a Good Wife, 2017, etc.) and Bliss (Dirty Secret, 2017, etc.) deliver an erotic romance novel featuring a stubborn city dweller and an ex-military hunk—both broken by life but ready for sexual redemption.
Humiliated by her husband’s adultery and their subsequent divorce, Los Angeles makeup artist Madison Atwood retreats to a Northern California spa. There, she runs into handsome mountain man Luke Dawson, a former Navy SEAL who was traumatized by his violent but lifesaving work, after he accidentally spies her masturbating while skinny-dipping. He gruffly leads Madison, whom he sees as being “all passion and no goddamn sense,” back down the mountain. Madison later chances upon him pleasing himself in his rustic cabin, and their sexual affair begins. As they progress through increasingly intense positions and techniques, their emotional connection also builds. Much is at stake, however: Madison’s life is back in LA, and Luke’s is here, in the remote wilderness. An unexpected visit from Madison’s ex threatens to derail the love affair, but the authors make sure that the couple’s time apart is mercifully brief. Soon, the sex scenes continue (“The strokes are punishing, deep and fast”), as Madison and Luke try to decide how to make their connection work. The authors offer nearly nonstop erotic scenes in this romance, which will keep readers turning the pages. But both Madison’s and Luke’s first-person perspectives offer a nice balance of the visceral and the intellectual, especially Luke’s: “I don’t recognize myself or my irrational physical responses.” Indeed, he’s effectively revealed as a sensitive man with advanced carnal knowledge; when he says, “Tonight, I’m going to take you in ways I haven’t yet,” saucy Madison melts into his commanding arms.
A high-heat romance between a pert LA woman and rough mountain man.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943893-40-9
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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