Next book

Welcome To The World Of Internet Dating, Conor Fitzpatrick

A fun read with a poignant message and tons of pop-culture references.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

Cohen offers an entertaining debut novel about sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and getting older.

Conor Fitzpatrick is the widowed manager of a rock band in Los Angeles. He’s been depressed since his wife passed away unexpectedly nearly a decade ago, and he’s gotten in the habit of drinking too much and avoiding dating. But when his niece, Chloe, comes to town for an internship, she decides to get her uncle back on his feet by setting him up with an online dating profile. Cohen’s novel chronicles Fitzpatrick’s attempts to navigate the online dating world as he simultaneously tries to resurrect his stagnant career in the music industry. It also follows Chloe as she makes her way up from lowly intern to assistant at a prestigious motion picture production company. Cohen’s wonderfully entertaining book grapples with relevant issues, such as the difficulties of aging, the challenges of the entertainment industry and the ways that people cope with grief. There’s some beautiful, poignant prose here, particularly when Conor finally starts to come to grips with the death of his wife: “It’s been ten years, he thought. She’s not on vacation. She’s not doing errands. She’s gone. Gone....If he quit drinking to excess and embraced some semblance of a healthy lifestyle, he might live another forty years. How did he want to live them?” Cohen is clearly well-versed in both the music industry and online dating world, and he cleverly implements humorous allusions to both. The book’s only weak points are its occasional spelling and grammatical errors, which detract from the otherwise compelling narrative.

A fun read with a poignant message and tons of pop-culture references.

Pub Date: April 17, 2014

ISBN: 978-1495225048

Page Count: 214

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: May 29, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014

Categories:
Next book

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

Categories:
Next book

MAGIC HOUR

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

Categories:
Close Quickview