Spencer shines in her sophomore effort, burnishing her reputation as an author to watch.
When a British aristocrat-turned-privateer returns to his family’s estate to protect the recently deceased earl’s young wife, there is plenty of danger and lots of secrets to go around, but the true threat may be to his heart and his plans for the future.
Lord Hugh Ramsay never expected to return to England. Captured at sea by a brutal pirate, Hugh has fought his way out of slavery and established himself as the most successful privateer on the high seas. For two decades his family has believed him to be dead, but when a loyal friend sends word that someone is threatening his uncle’s widow, Hugh comes home to protect the countess and her twin sons. He is surprised to discover the septuagenarian earl married a teenager a decade ago and stunned to realize he’s never been more attracted to a woman than he is to the bookish Daphne, who is a fiercely intelligent, unassuming beauty. Determined to vanquish the menace and get back to his ship, he is thwarted at every turn, first when he is himself attacked, then when his meddling aunt presses Hugh and Daphne into the Season—and a few other distractions in between. In order to discover who wants to harm Daphne, she and Hugh must share their deepest secrets and face vengeful enemies, especially once Hugh acknowledges his happiness lies in England with the woman who’s stolen his heart. Spencer (Dangerous, 2018) continues the swashbuckling corsair theme in her second title, with a wounded warrior who finds safe haven in the unworldly yet bright Daphne. Deft writing and astute character development sustain a complex plot and a huge cast of characters that could flounder in less accomplished hands, while a touch of humor tempers some darker edges of the nuanced story.
Spencer shines in her sophomore effort, burnishing her reputation as an author to watch.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4721-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Uneasy mix of escapism and medical soap opera.
Another Nantucket beach read from Hildebrand (Nantucket Nights, 2001), this one set in a fabulous ocean-side restaurant where the heroine’s frothy romance competes with the specter of cystic fibrosis.
Adrienne Dealey arrives in Nantucket from Aspen, having drifted from one resort hotel job to another for the last eight years. Despite a complete lack of restaurant experience, debonair Thatcher Smith immediately hires her as his assistant manager at the eponymous Blue Bistro, which he owns with chef Fiona Kemp and which will shut its doors for good after this final summer season. Adrienne moves in with a friendly waitress, buys some new hostess outfits and proves a fast learner of the ins and outs of the restaurant business, her success aided by her natural good looks. Hildebrand introduces lots of mouthwatering food and keeps the champagne flowing for the not terribly colorful cast of customers and staff—the unhappy married couple, the studly bartender, the lonely rich guy, the ambitious pastry chef. The inevitable romance between Adrienne and Thatch is complicated by Thatch’s devotion to Fiona, with whom he eats dinner every night after the restaurant closes. And, frankly, in a charisma contest, Fiona in her apron would win over Adrienne in her designer frocks hands down. A graduate of the Culinary Institute, petite, fierce-eyed Fiona is a brilliant chef who could be a star on the Cooking Channel, but she avoids all publicity and never leaves her kitchen. Gradually, Adrienne realizes that Fiona is sick, a secret that must be kept so that diners aren’t frightened away. As the summer winds down, Adrienne and Thatch find themselves deeply in love, but Thatch’s devotion to the devoutly Catholic Fiona, who has her own married lover, never waivers, and he marries her in a hospital ceremony just before her death. Not to worry: now he’s an available widower.
Uneasy mix of escapism and medical soap opera.Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-312-31953-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
Starts out promising but never quite gets out of first gear.
A laconic auto-body shop owner hopes to woo a longtime crush, but he has to overcome his past trauma to convince her they belong together.
Rena Jackson has started her own hair salon in Seattle and wants her personal life to rev up, too, but she has almost given up on Axel Heller’s making a move. Though she finds the German transplant attractive, she worries that he is commitment-phobic and not ready for true intimacy. With both their upbringings shadowing them (his involves domestic violence and hers a single mother who has looked for love too often), can two strong, wary people become vulnerable to love? Harte (Delivered With a Kiss, 2019, etc.) provides readers with passages about Axel’s painful memories and his fear of being a physical threat to a woman. This is a useful counter to some novels’ tendency to romanticize the threat of male power. But the limited, alternating perspective leaves Rena in the dark for much longer than the reader, with the result that her complaints about Axel’s attachment style edge her into unlikable territory. The novel is threaded together by Axel's awkward (albeit funny) attempts to court Rena with gifts and other gestures but doesn't allow her similar space to show her personality and get us to root for the couple. The quick references to, and scenes with, numerous peripheral characters bog down the romance arc further. The handling of the white supremacists who have been threatening Rena, who's African American, is a broad-stroke attempt to acknowledge racism but lacks nuance, as does a scene involving homophobia. While the novel’s title and cover allude to recent successes like The Kiss Quotient and The Hating Game, it lacks the former’s thematic firm-footedness and the latter’s tonal mastery of comedy and emotion.
Starts out promising but never quite gets out of first gear.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-9698-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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