Frothy, sexy fun despite its flaws.
Purdu’s sprightly debut romance follows one woman’s quest for the “Big O”—and the love she finds along the way.
Twenty-seven-year-old Austin pianist Desdemona Lorents is relaxing at home one Saturday night when she’s shocked to see her ex-boyfriend, Burt, and his wife on Marriage Exposure, a trashy talk show whose guests spill juicy details about their sex lives. To Desdemona’s horror, the conversation turns to her—and Burt reveals on national television that she faked all her orgasms. Even more humiliating? It’s true. Now that her secret’s out, Desdemona’s more determined than ever to prove to herself she isn’t a “freak.” Maybe she’s been with the wrong men? She has a one-night stand with Miguel San Felipe Rodriguez, a charming classical guitarist. She experiments with Ross, a “sweet, handsome systems engineer” and her only adult piano student, who lets her tie him up and take control. But orgasm still eludes her. Her high school sweetheart, Hunter Johns, comes back into her life. They haven’t seen each other for nine years, ever since he took the rap for his mother’s embezzlement and was sent to juvenile detention. Before long, the old flame has rekindled—but is it enough to overcome Desdemona’s problem? Purdu gives a voice to the many women who can’t achieve orgasm with a partner—and who rarely, if ever, see themselves in romance novels. Desdemona’s internal monologues are funny and relatable, especially during sex: “What will he do next? Take off my dress? Take off his own clothes? Where does he keep condoms? What if he doesn’t want to use a condom? Should I ask now? My armpits get moist….Is my deodorant still working?” However, and it’s hard to avoid spoilers here, readers may feel that the finale begs for more emotional nuance.
Frothy, sexy fun despite its flaws.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-78097-8
Page Count: 218
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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
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