An intriguing but improbable romance.
An academic meets a movie star in this contemporary romance.
Dee Schwartz is an arts researcher who likes to push the envelope. Her publisher thinks her latest manuscript is too controversial (“on page one, there’s an explicit oral act in the balcony of a church”). She meets film star Ryder “Rye” Field one night at a bar in Los Angeles. Rye has a checkered past; Dee’s friends warn her about him because there’s a lot of gossip swirling around the actor. She goes out with Rye anyway. They bond over the fact that they both lost their mothers at young ages. There’s a lot of talk on that first date, as they tell each other their entire backstories before they sleep together. Soon, he invites her as his date to a business dinner in which he tries to iron out the specifics of his next movie. Dee impresses everyone at the dinner. After just a few days, Rye and Dee declare their love for each other and everything seems blissful. Some fun secondary characters, a well-drawn setting, and an exciting eleventh-hour kidnapping plot propel Leavy’s story. The author also offers rich details about Rye’s Hollywood world and Dee’s opinions on art (“I love art more than anything; it’s sacred to me. Artists need to be free. Art shouldn’t have to apologize for itself. It should provoke, inspire, unsettle, and disrupt—or at least aspire to”). Unfortunately, there’s no conflict at all between Dee and Rye, which feels like a missed opportunity given the actor’s dramatic backstory and the constant presence of paparazzi. Instead, they are just happy and in love, which comes across as more cloying than romantic. Dee is also a little too perfect. Everyone is completely dazzled by her; Rye’s Hollywood friends all know about her work and, on meeting her, want her input on their projects. In one scene, a hip-hop artist asks Dee to comment on her music. Dee demurs, saying she doesn’t know anything about hip-hop. But then she listens to a song and immediately figures out how to fix it. She is suddenly an expert on trap music, which will strain readers’ credulity.
An intriguing but improbable romance.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781647422967
Page Count: 224
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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