More frustrated passion, political scandal, and true Texas grit from Brown—this featuring the simmering love-hate bond between cool, beautiful Dr. Laura Mallory and the savage blue-eyed younger brother of the politician whose life she reputedly destroyed. The mystery is why Dr. Mallory set up practice in Eden Pass, Texas, in the first place. The focus of a national scandal when she was photographed years before being escorted in her nightgown from young Senator Clark Tackett's Virginia home by her husband, Ambassador Randall Porter, Mallory and Porter were summarily banished to the no-account Caribbean nation of Montesangre—where Porter and their baby daughter were murdered in a rebel ambush, while Tackett drowned in a Texas fishing accident that may have been a suicide. Mallory returned to the States to find her professional name permanently sullied and, in desperation, accepted the modest doctor's home and office that a remorseful Tackett had deeded her in his tiny hometown of Eden Pass. Predictably, Mallory is shunned by a community ruled by Tackett's mother, Jody, the iron-willed widowed dowager of Tackett Oil and Gas. But the beautiful doctor accepts the situation, living meekly off her savings until Tackett's reckless, handsome younger brother, Key, returns from the Middle East. Then she goes to work to convince Key—who is, naturally, torn between loathing the good doctor and wanting to tear off her clothes—to fly her to Montesangre to locate the site of her daughter's grave. Murder, terror, dark hints of concealed homosexuality, and the shocking resurrection of husband Porter follow as the backdrop to Mallory and Key's romance (``I don't want to be one of Key Tackett's women.'' ``Yes, you do. Tonight you do''), making for an unusually perilous and gruesome journey toward marriage and a house on the lake. More sophisticated than Brown's Texas! books, this mainstream romance could well expand her already enormous readership. (First printing of 250,000; Literary Guild Dual Selection for Spring)
Pub Date: May 7, 1993
ISBN: 0-446-51655-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
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
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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