A wan romance stuffed with clichés, best for readers who must know what happened to the bullied high school protagonist of...
A sequel to Big Love (2016), this is the next chapter in the life of Truman, a high school senior adjusting to the aftermath of coming out, who falls in love for the first time with a handsome stranger new to town.
Truman has been bullied for his genderfluid, gay identity for years, but as a high school senior, he’s finally learned to accept himself even if other people in the small Ohio town of Summitville can’t accept him. Raised by a loving single mom who works in the local diner, Truman dreams of escaping the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains for an acting career in the big city. In the meantime, he’s happy as stage crew for the school’s production of Harvey. The lead role of Myrtle Mae Simmons unexpectedly drops into his lap, and Truman accepts with trepidation: “I’ll be…the laughingstock of the school,” he tells the drama teacher. When Truman sees new kid Mike Stewart on the bus, he’s instantly attracted to his rugged, dark looks and piercing blue eyes. But Mike is closeted, and his homophobic dad has started dating Truman’s mother. Reed’s Summitville is authentically loaded with overlapping relationships, boundary issues, and working-class challenges, but he relies on cliché to the detriment of characterization. Truman’s critics are irrational and evil and, of course, closeted gays. Mike is a cardboard closeted gay man who, of course, comes out in a crowd for his true love. He is little more than his “John Wayne gait, muscles, and stubble for days,” a prop for Truman’s romantic development. Critics of the tameness of Big Love will be pleased to find more explicit sex scenes in this volume, though clinical lines like “In a very short while, both of them were dissatisfied with the skin-on-skin sensations being limited only to their top halves” don’t generate much heat.
A wan romance stuffed with clichés, best for readers who must know what happened to the bullied high school protagonist of the first installment.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64108-064-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may...
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.
Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fiancé, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She’s recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she’s done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can’t help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona’s life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.Pub Date: July 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-15657-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without...
Megaselling Roberts (River's End, 1999, etc.) goes to Napa Valley for the tale of an Italian-American family wine producers rocked by scandal and a series of murders.
Dynasty head Tereza Giambelli knows that her granddaughter Sophia is the only family member capable of running a multimillion-dollar wine business—and no one contradicts La Signora. It's just as well the lovely young woman is still single: Tereza has plans for her. The matriarch has recently married Eli MacMillan, the American founder of another famous wine company. Eli's grandson Tyler knows everything there is to know about producing wine, from the vineyard to the vat. Ruggedly handsome, intelligent and earthy, he's a perfect match for public-relations whiz Sophia—or so thinks Tereza. The two young people begin to work together; Tyler teaches Sophia the fine art of making wine and making love. But other family members hope to claim their share of the Giambelli fortune, and people start dying mysteriously, including Sophia's good-for-nothing father, Tony Avano. Long divorced from long-suffering Pilar Giambelli, Tony led an opulent, self-indulgent life that provides plenty of murder suspects. He might have been killed by the mob, or a jealous mistress, or his spoiled brother-in-law, Tereza's lazy son, who's produced a passel of brats with his foolish Italian wife in the hopes of making Tereza happy. Everyone has a motive, and nothing is what it seems, Sophia discovers, but Tyler stands by her. Then a bottle of tainted merlot kills a company exec. A tragic mishap caused by poisonous plants growing near the vines? Or deliberate product tampering intended to destroy the company? Sophia and Tyler will need to delve even deeper into the convoluted and sometimes unsavory history of the family and its three-generation business.
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without a hitch.Pub Date: March 19, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14712-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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