An uneven portrait of difficult love.
Caleb, a fictional Coast Guardsman, falls in love with Caribé, a Dominican woman he rescues, and they attempt to relocate during her illegal escape from the Dominican Republic.
Set within the rough confines of poverty, Caribé’s story—though fictional—addresses the experience of Caribbean citizens who risk their lives to reach the promise of a better life in the U.S. After losing her family at sea when a previous escape attempt goes awry, Caribé is more determined than ever to leave behind the Dominican Republic and its looming threats to her safety. As she struggles to raise enough money to both survive and fund her escape, Caribé continues to dodge violent intimidations from Raul, a drug trafficker bent on using her for the trade. Once able to pay for the next yola headed for America, she struggles with the fear, starvation and filth that accompany illegal immigration. Days later, the U.S. Coast Guard stops her boat after it loses engine power, and the dehydrated passengers are transferred to the Coast Guard’s cutter to be transported back home. Amid the chaos, Caribé meets Caleb, a young member of the Coast Guard responsible for rescuing her yola; upon returning to Dominican shores, they bond over the rescue. Caleb’s crew regularly returns to the port, so he begins to see Caribé for meals, drinks and travel, before they exchange contact information and make plans for future visits. As Caleb falls for her, despite mocking from his crew, Caribé works to maintain an image that hides her hardships from him. Their love growing, the couple faces challenges to their relationship from forces greater than themselves—the complex, tragic systems of nationality and privilege that govern the world. Yet the story becomes rather one-dimensional, as the omniscient narrator focuses too much on romance, foregoing the realistic depiction of the disproportionate struggles they face. Although the narrator lingers on the details of Caleb’s life aboard his ship, readers will lose a sense of Caribe’s life as a Caribbean woman dealing with impressive hardships: potential poverty, national unrest, complex racial structures, etc. Although at times the dialogue can be overworked, the rewarding passages artfully capture love confronting the region’s unavoidable ethnic and national stigmas.
An uneven portrait of difficult love.Pub Date: June 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470113469
Page Count: 352
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.
Opposites attract when a Grim Reaper clashes with a Guardian Angel in this whimsical paranormal romance.
Darcy Moore is in a bit of a tough spot; she’s a Grim Reaper who’s grown tired of death. When she’s given her next assignment, Darcy decides to go rogue. Rather than reaping, Darcy is determined to save her mark, which only upsets the balance kept by the Department of Hauntings and Spirits. Nothing good comes from a Grim Reaper who’s gone AWOL. Bartender Gabriel Aetos works as a Guardian Angel. He doesn’t take kindly to the fact that a Grim Reaper is slinking around his territory. His role is to protect people, while hers is to usher souls into death. To him, their very natures are at odds and his sudden attraction to Darcy won’t change that. This is very much a grumpy-meets-grumpy romance. Gabriel tries hard to keep Darcy at arm’s length and is open about his mistrust of her. Darcy’s standoffishness, though, is born out of her feelings of isolation and loneliness. Dealing in death has taken an obvious toll on her, and she’s traveling her own introspective path on what it means to be human. Darcy’s fragility is what slowly convinces Gabriel to get close to her, despite the heady yearning he keeps under wraps. However, both view their jobs as central to their existence, for better or worse. While Darcy is actively wondering what it would mean to break free of her Grim Reaper responsibilities, Gabriel has never seemed to ponder being anything other than a Guardian Angel. Borison’s romances—most recently And Now, Back to You (2026)—always strike an emotional chord, with deep-seated conflicts that tap into themes of identity, connection, and grief. This addition is truly the epitome of a Borison romance.
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780063430464
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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