Romance interruptus.
A second outing by Killham (How to Cook a Tart, 2002) alternately spoofs and succumbs to the conventions of genre romance.
Jack Carter, aka Celeste d’Arcy, is at the top of his game as a romance author. His Regency characters, Primrose and Guy, lounge around inspiring him with what will prove to be this novel’s wittiest repartee. (Although the setting is Venice Beach, Calif., and the characters are American, the dialogue is pure cheeky Brit-speak.) Recently, after too many encounters with women who only want one thing, Jack has decided to become a “born-again virgin” and save himself for true love. Meanwhile, his sister Kate tries seaweed, exorcism, feng shui, testosterone patches, anything to recharge her flagging libido, but her husband’s girth keeps dampening her ardor. Their teenage daughter Leda is experimenting with hooking up and directing Internet porn videos. Kate sends her newly destitute and recently evicted friend Molly to stay with Jack—Molly is unemployed as a result of a sexual harassment scandal (she’s the perp). Jack’s elderly mother Rita, meanwhile, is a sexual harasser-wannabe deterred only by the male-female ratio (1-10) at her retirement community. While Jack labors to cement a rules-driven abstinent relationship with blonde ice-queen Heather, he finds himself inexorably drawn to lush brunette Molly, who’s the ideal combination of randy but well-intentioned. But she hesitates to exploit Jack’s suppressed longings—except as a conduit to his editor. Soon, as Molly Desire, she’s outstripping him career-wise, penning romance spiced with S&M and erotica, while Primrose and Guy are locked out by their author’s sudden creativity deficit. Molly gets pregnant by one of her interchangeable lovers, possibly the Fabio clone who models during Jack’s bookstore appearances, while, in another trite twist, Mom proves too sexy for the nursing home. Obstacles to achieving the coy title’s intent, uh, snowball. In a Valentine’s Day ensemble set-piece worthy of a bad sitcom pilot, the scattershot plot unravels, and abrupt reversals and convenient changes of heart dictate the predictable dénouement.
Romance interruptus.Pub Date: May 9, 2005
ISBN: 1-58234-501-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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