A perfect balance of heat, humor, quirkiness, and refinement.
When Lexie Kowalsky abandons her reality TV groom at the altar in Seattle and hops on a seaplane to Canada, she shares the flight with handsome Sean Knox, who joins her on a crazy roller coaster of publicity, spin, and romance until they realize they’re truly in love.
Lexie joined a reality wedding show to garner a little free publicity for her designer pet-clothing business but is stunned when, thanks to her competitive nature, she wins the groom. When true reality hits—she’s expected to marry a man she doesn’t love—she flees, jumping aboard a seaplane preparing for takeoff. There, she meets Sean, who's headed to Sandspit, Canada, to visit his hypochondriac mother. Sean and Lexie share an immediate attraction, but Sean is determined to keep his distance. Not only is she swimming in drama, but she also happens to be the daughter of John Kowalsky, head coach of his professional hockey team, the Chinooks. However, a photo of Lexie and her “mystery man” goes viral, turning public opinion against her and threatening her business. Back in Seattle, Lexie convinces Sean to pose as the love of her life and the reason she couldn’t marry her TV groom, which forces them to navigate their families, the television audience, and the Seattle social scene. Somewhere along the way they fall in love, but the journey to figuring it out and admitting it is both heart-wrenching and funny. Gibson’s (Just Kiss Me, 2016, etc.) Chinooks have been a favorite romance series for two decades, and this, the next chapter for Lexie and her parents, the stars of Book 1, is a highly satisfying revisit. Gibson blends emotional and comic details without turning farcical or melodramatic, showing subtlety and finesse in her storytelling and characterization.
A perfect balance of heat, humor, quirkiness, and refinement.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-224747-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious...
Beautiful Italian babe with a passion for fire and doomed hunks joins the arson squad and discovers that someone has held a torch for her since she was a child.
When Reena Hale is 11 years old, she watches her family's Baltimore pizzeria go up in flames. Thanks to a local arson detective, John Minger, and the girl's keen memory, police determine that a neighborhood crook whose young son had recently attacked Reena was out for revenge, and soon cops publicly haul the dirt bag off to jail. The large and loving Hale family bands together and rebuilds; Reena grows up curious about the origins of fire. She attends college and, after her boyfriend dies in an accident, joins the police force and learns the inner workings of the fire department. Eventually, she teams with Minger to solve the city's suspicious fires. Meanwhile, over the years, a shady character has been hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to violently sabotage Reena's relationships (usually with the help of explosives). Somehow Reena doesn't put together that all of her boyfriends have been in the path of catastrophic (occasionally deadly) events, so her stalker hits the phone lines to clue her in with dirty messages that become more and more intimate. When Reena launches a torrid love affair with her new neighbor, whose truck soon explodes, she begins to get it. Fearing for her family's safety, Reena reopens past cases and learns that her troubles started when she was a child. The tale builds to a breathless climax as she (literally) races to beat out the flames of one fire before determining where the next one will be set.
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious nature.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-15306-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
A paint-by-numbers thriller by bestselling romance writer Garwood.
Dr. Ellie Sullivan has had her fair share of trouble: At 11, an older boy stalked and nearly killed her, sending her into hiding. Now that she’s finished her medical residency at a St. Louis hospital (she’s a brilliant surgeon) and her stalker Evan Patterson has been released from an institution, she’s not sure where to turn. To make matters worse, while jogging she is witness to the attempted murder of an FBI agent and is soon involved in the case. The Landrys are husband-and-wife weapons dealers (as well as murderers and kidnappers) that the FBI has been trying to nail for years. Unfortunately, their witnesses keep disappearing. Ellie witnesses the failed sting and is soon being guarded by Agent Max Daniels. Happily, both feel an immediate, uncontrollable passion. Max is ruggedly handsome, forthright and a little bit controlling. Ellie is any man’s dream come true: gorgeous but laid back, brilliant, but a little insecure, and the kind of girl who wants to end the evening watching SportsCenter with a cold beer. And absolutely no post-coital snuggling. Amid the danger, they begin to fall in love, even though neither is up for a commitment. When Ellie needs to go home to South Carolina for her sister’s wedding, Max soon follows; it seems one of the witnesses to the shooting has disappeared. And it is just as well—psychotic stalker Evan Patterson has been sighted in town at the local gun shop. With the Landry’s hit man driving to South Carolina and Evan Patterson on the loose, the question is who will to try to kill Ellie first. Undoubtedly Garwood is a pro—the pacing is taut, the characters are swiftly drawn and she even throws in a few surprises before the obligatory happy ending. But everything is too formulaic to be truly suspenseful, too clichéd to be truly romantic.
Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-525-95225-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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