A former Atlanta Hawks basketball star meets a potential love interest in Plummer’s debut romance novel.
Nehemiah Shepherd has lost faith in life. Once a professional athlete, he now lives with his aunt, who’s into the Bible, the Buddha and tarot cards. Auntie often has visions, including one about a woman she says that Nehemiah will meet, and soon he’s approached by a lady who’s “thick but sexy.” Saundra, a woman of color in her 40s, makes a move on him, which is uncharacteristic of her. It turns out that both Saundra and Nehemiah can hear other people’s thoughts, including each other’s. The two quickly become a couple, and they have a soulful, erotic connection. For a time, he turns away from other women who look to him for money and status, in order to focus on Saundra. Auntie believes that Nehemiah has a healing destiny to fulfill, to help “rebuild the wall” of Saundra’s trust in men. Both Nehemiah and Saundra find their relationship to be a source of pleasure and discomfort: Nehemiah is overwhelmed by the depth of his feelings and his own unhappy romantic past, while Saundra struggles with her previous mistreatment by men. She’s bisexual, and sometimes she and Nehemiah are joined in their lovemaking by another woman; she’s also a Christian, and often lectured by those who wish to talk her out of her sexual orientation. This novel is the first in a planned trilogy, and Nehemiah and Saundra will presumably return for the sequels. Their relationship is well-developed here, revealing their strong sexual natures in a story that’s steamy but tamer than E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey (2011). Their fear of intimacy leads to various difficulties, including extended separations; Nehemiah sometimes distances himself for months at a time, which triggers Saundra’s alcoholic relapses and her on-and-off affair with a married man. The character of Auntie is a gem, and other charming supporting characters include Saundra’s gay friend Antwon and Nehemiah’s witty pal Dante. At the book’s end, there’s a sense that Saundra’s desires and Nehemiah’s accommodations will land the pair in muddy waters in the future.
A solid, erotic story with well-crafted characters, and the promise of more drama to come.
Pub Date: March 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1483408019
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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