Alers has the opportunity to stray off the beaten path exploring romance between folks who are not kids anymore and who have...
A savvy New Yorker takes a chance on a long-distance romance.
Cameron Singleton has a few simple rules: Always use protection, never promise a woman anything you’re not willing to deliver, and move on quickly as soon as a female companion mentions the M word. With these in place, the investment banker has managed to remain New Orleans’ most eligible white bachelor well into his 40s. But from the moment he sets eyes on lovely Jasmine Washington, who’s in town from the Big Apple to attend Hannah DuPont-Lowell’s wedding to St. John McNair (The Inheritance, 2017), something feels different. Whether it’s Jasmine’s unusual looks (she’s the daughter of an African-American dad and a Filipina mom) or her cool self-confidence, Cam feels he simply must get to know the interior designer–turned–human resources specialist. Fortunately, he’s due in New York for his college fraternity’s annual reunion. And his timing couldn’t be better. A merger at Jasmine’s firm, Wakefield-Hamilton, led to mass layoffs, and her temporary stint at a social service agency has just ended, so she’s got plenty of time to join Cameron for dinner at Cipriani Club 55. When Cameron tempts her with the chance to be his plus-one at his fraternity’s formal dinner, she ups the ante, telling him she’ll accompany him on the glitzy dinner cruise if he spends the day at her aunt and uncle’s bed-and-breakfast on Long Island. Although her disastrous marriage left her determined to spend the rest of her days happily single, independent-minded Jasmine is intrigued by Cameron, too. Besides, how much can a relationship cramp Jasmine’s style if her significant other lives nearly 1,200 miles away?
Alers has the opportunity to stray off the beaten path exploring romance between folks who are not kids anymore and who have some intriguing baggage, but she’s just too intent on getting to the finish line to let these complications mature.Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0734-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dafina/Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal...
A gumbo seasoned with ghosts, love, and murder on the bayou.
When 30-something Declan Fitzgerald of Boston, a successful lawyer and a member of a large and loving family, breaks off his engagement to very suitable Jessica, he knows he needs to change his life. Lawyering is not fun anymore, so, recalling Manet Hall, an old deserted plantation house he once visited with law school classmate and New Orleans native Remy, he buys the property and moves down south. Declan is also a gifted craftsman, a born decorator, and very, very rich. Soon, he meets beautiful Lena, who’s visiting her grandmother Odette, Declan’s friendly Cajun neighbor. Declan is as certain that Lena is destined to be his wife as he was that Manet Hall would become his home. But, surprise, Lena has a troubled past (like the house) and is determined to resist Declan’s courtship. While he suits Lena and works on the place, Declan experiences troubling dreams. It seems he’s actually reliving the novel’s parallel story, which took place in 1899. In that year, the maid, Abbey Manet (from whom Lena, coincidentally, is descended, and who married wealthy Lucian Manet), was raped and murdered by her brother-in-law Julian as she nursed her baby daughter. Her body was dumped into the bayou by her mother-in-law, who despised her. And grief-stricken husband Lucian, away at the time, being told that Abbey had run off, committed suicide. Now, in an unconvincing twist of gender and reincarnation, it’s Declan who hears a baby crying , experiences childbirth and rape as the reincarnation of Abbey, while Lena is Lucian. The two accept all this with equanimity, and, Manet Hall’s secrets revealed, it becomes the setting for predictable and much foreshadowed resolutions.
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal fans will enjoy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14824-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
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