A crepe-thin yet amusing plot featuring a likable heroine.
After a string of disastrous dates, Natalie reluctantly takes up online dating in Hutchinson’s debut novel.
A husband, kids, a home on a quiet cul-de-sac and a Mickey Mouse waffle maker: Is that too much to ask? It is for 34-year-old Natalie. After a particularly bad blind-date arranged by a hospital co-worker, Natalie agrees to follow her gay friend Derek’s advice and try online dating. She sets up a mostly truthful profile under an assumed name and shortly finds herself on a date with a handsome doctor. Alan’s perfect except for one small thing: He’s the former fiance of her childhood best friend, Jordan. The familiar chick-lit choice between a flawless new love and a self-centered, manipulative friend keeps Natalie wringing her hands in agony. Beyond the initial chapters, it’s Natalie, not the recycled plot, who captivates readers. She appears amusingly ditzy during dating scenes: Natalie’s befuddled by clothing, hair and makeup choices, and she’s prone to falling down. In between the requisite sex, shopping and Sunday brunches, she works as a nurse in a pediatric unit; there, she’s smart and compassionate. Astute observations about co-workers, patients and hospital working-conditions mix sensitivity with wry humor. Compared to Natalie, the beautiful but mean best friend and the dashing, brilliant doctor feel too flat to be realistic. The supportive gay best friend, another stock character, fares better, particularly during scenes related to his career and his rich, unreasonable clients. Delicious humor peppers the novel, even in the most serious scenes. Whether found in the misreading of a romantic situation, the unraveling of an elaborate lie or the physical comedy of a pratfall, the humor ably distracts from the novel’s clichés.
A crepe-thin yet amusing plot featuring a likable heroine.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1466484238
Page Count: 310
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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