A comical love triangle in small-town Texas makes for a quick, uplifting read.
A perpetually single middle-aged woman is suddenly pursued by two supremely eligible bachelors at once in this cheery romantic comedy.
Melvina Banks was fat in high school. Her mother left when she was young. After a lifetime of feeling like nobody’s first choice, Melvina cannot understand why anyone in her small town of Magnolia, Texas, would be interested in her for anything more than the pastries she loves to bake. Melvina tells herself she is content with her life as it is. She works at her father’s diner, does charity work in town, spends time with her best friend, Mona, and regularly saves money so she can one day open her own bakery. When celebrity chef Riley Nash comes to town for a fundraiser, Melvina is eager to meet him so she can get pointers on opening an eatery. To her surprise, this wealthy, handsome man takes an immediate shine to her. Melvina at first resists him, wondering if she’s imagining his interest. Yet Riley continues his pursuit. Making matters more complicated, Manny Owens, the town fire chief and Melvina’s longtime crush, suddenly seems to notice her, too. Before long, Melvina finds herself exploring relationships with both of these guys, inevitably bumping into one of them every time she goes on a date with the other. In short order, she will have to decide whose declarations she trusts and what will truly make her happy. Full of slapstick humor, ranging from chocolate fountain disasters to mishaps with manure, the novel feels upbeat throughout. Although the text is generally wholesome and lighthearted, there are multiple explicit sex scenes that are so at odds with the good-clean-fun vibe of the other portions of the book as to make the reader cringe. The first book in the author’s planned Hot in Magnolia series, this plot-driven novel would have benefitted from additional details about the setting to help the reader feel more grounded in the nonstop action. Even so, Lauren (Race for the Sun, 2018) manages to create a feel-good tale with engaging questions about the essence of self-confidence, romantic love, and self-determination.
A comical love triangle in small-town Texas makes for a quick, uplifting read.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73409-681-1
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
