A well-crafted historical romance built on a marriage of convenience.
A gambler bets on love in Matthews’ (The Work of Art, 2019, etc.) latest period romance, set in 1860 England.
Alex Archer never looks back, or so he claims. Decades ago, he fled the orphanage that was his childhood home and left his friends behind, piecing together a life for himself as a gambler. Now, his latest scheme is to leverage his winnings, wed a wealthy country socialite, and finally secure his own land. But his plans seem to go awry from the beginning when he stumbles across the beautiful, impoverished Laura Hayes. Her family has suffered financially since the death of her father, and Laura has been responsible for the well-beings of her brother, who’s in ill health, and her elderly aunt. Unfortunately, her family’s estate is controlled by a scheming lawyer, and their only hope is for Laura to marry before her upcoming 25th birthday to receive her inheritance. When Alex appears in her small town, Laura immediately sees him as a fortune hunter, intent on marrying her wealthy friend, Henrietta Talbot. But Alex’s plans are no match for the vagaries of true love. Despite his financial interests and Laura’s determination to avoid him, their fate is sealed when Alex saves her life. But before they can pursue their relationship, Alex must reconcile with his past. Readers of Matthews’ previous works will be pleasantly satisfied when Alex crosses paths with memorable characters from prior installments of the Parish Orphans of Devon series. Matthews’ storytelling skills remain rock-solid, and she spins a lovely romantic tale here. Her characters are familiar types, and the plot follows a predictable path, but that doesn’t make the journey any less enjoyable. As always, the background historical details are impeccably researched; in particular, Laura’s trip to the seaside at Margate provides readers with a captivating glimpse into Victorian culture. The description of Victorian bathing machines is intriguing, as well, and Matthews builds excellent narrative tension as Laura’s independent attitude clashes with the era’s cultural expectations.
A well-crafted historical romance built on a marriage of convenience.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73305-693-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Perfectly Proper Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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