Spicy sexual chemistry and a generous dash of authentic Puerto Rican flavor blend together in a sharp romance that begs to...
A popular Hollywood actor who's putting his body through drastic transformations to establish himself as a versatile performer finds himself enamored by a sassy fitness trainer, learning that there’s more to life than a job.
Fitness expert and trainer Tori Alvarez decides to go to Aruba to escape the gossip and speculation surrounding her rocky relationship with a publicity-hungry politician. She meets up-and-coming sitcom star Carter Stone on her flight to Aruba, but since he's fresh from the set of a film which required him to shed several pounds and grow a beard, she doesn’t recognize him. Tori is still sore from her previous relationship, but she finds herself reluctantly charmed by Carter’s impishness, and they spend a couple of idyllic days laughing and bantering. Then, when a nosy paparazzo descends on Carter, Tori discovers the truth about his identity and feels tremendously betrayed. Hoping to thaw Tori’s anger, Carter approaches her for assistance when he realizes that he will have to gain back his robust physique quickly to bag a role in a big-budget Hollywood film. Before she can let Carter back into her life, though, Tori is forced to decide if she can overcome her reluctance to live a life in the public eye. The first installment in the Love on Cue series is charming, witty, and consistently funny and will get readers invested in the sharply etched secondary characters. Although the final resolution of Tori’s personal troubles seems too pat to ring true, Sosa hits all the right notes by weaving a uniformly entertaining story that effortlessly unpacks several socially relevant themes, such as the relationship between fitness and traditional cuisine and the nature of show business.
Spicy sexual chemistry and a generous dash of authentic Puerto Rican flavor blend together in a sharp romance that begs to be savored.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-269033-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.
In Roberts’ new series launch, the conversion of a tumbledown Maryland hotel into a boutique country inn fails to expel an extremely shy resident ghost.
The first half of the novel, essentially an extended prologue, is painstakingly slow. As Roberts demonstrates a newfound passion for construction minutia (perhaps because she renovated and owns Inn Boonsboro in real life), the activities of architect Beckett Montgomery and his two builder brothers as they retrofit a historic building in Boonsboro (near the Antietam battlefield) unfold almost in real time. Working under the supervision of their benevolent tyrant of a mother, the brothers exchange good-natured macho gibes as they appoint the Inn-to-be with the most opulent tile, woodwork and fixtures. Amid all the bromance, Beckett watches longingly as his crush since grade school, Clare, goes about running her amazingly profitable independent bookstore while raising three unruly boys alone. (Her soldier husband died in Iraq.) Does she or doesn’t she notice him, Beckett muses ad infinitum. Meanwhile, Clare tells herself that Beckett is not really interested, just being kind to a war widow. Once this minor miscommunication is cleared up, the two begin a tentative relationship, however, the necessity of introducing obstacles to true love has Roberts stretching for things for them to squabble about, including the sighting by Clare’s youngest son of a ghostly lady dressed in an old-timey long gown, staring from an upper story window of the Inn. (The ghost, nicknamed “Lizzy,” has betrayed her presence to Beckett and a few others only with a scent of honeysuckle and a penchant for opening doors.) Cartoonish villain Sam, the spoiled, indolent son of the area’s wealthiest family, stalks Clare and tries to take indecent liberties, but his belated appearance, and his failure to pose a believable threat, do little to propel the plot. The fictional doppelganger of Boonsboro is an anachronistic bubble, seemingly untouched by the blight besetting so many American small towns.
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24321-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a...
An unhappily married couple spends a year apart in Reid’s (Forever, Interrupted, 2013) novel about second chances.
When we meet Lauren, she and her husband, Ryan, are having a meltdown trying to find their car in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium after a game. Through a series of flashbacks, Lauren reveals how the two of them went from being inseparable to being insufferable in each other’s eyes—and in desperate need of a break. Both their courtship and their fights seem so ordinary—they met in college; he doesn’t like Greek food—that the most heartbreaking part of their pending separation is deciding who will get custody of their good-natured dog. It’s not until Ryan moves out that the juicy details emerge. Lauren surreptitiously logs into his email one day, in a fit of missing him, and discovers a bunch of emails to her that he had saved but not sent. Liberated by Ryan’s candor, Lauren saves her replies for him to find, and the two of them read each other’s unfiltered thoughts as they go about their separate lives. Neither character holds anything back, which makes the healing process more complex, and more compelling, than simply getting revenge or getting one’s groove back. Meanwhile, as Lauren spends more time with her family and friends, she explores the example set for her by her parents and learns that there are many ways to be happy. It’s never clear until the final pages whether living alone will bring Lauren and Ryan back together or force them apart forever. But when the year is up, the resolution is neither sappy nor cynical; it’s arrived at after an honest assessment of what each partner can’t live with and can’t live without.
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a committed relationship.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1284-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Washington Square/Pocket
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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