Annoying forced drama and a heroine who will call her abusive ex-boyfriend on the cellphone she bought to avoid him when she...
Lacey St. James has hit rock bottom; just as she decides she needs to make changes, she meets Everett, an intriguing stranger who helps her make more empowering choices.
Lacey has an abusive boyfriend, an abusive family and abusive friends—and a much younger brother. In the past, she was the victim of a tragic incident that gave her a terrible reputation; she reacted by dropping out of school, working at dead-end jobs, partying with so-called friends who treated her badly and hooking up with awful men. On the night her boyfriend, Macon, practically rapes her, she goes out with Ashley, a “friend” who obviously doesn’t care about her at all. Macon shows up at the bar and tries to force her to have sex with some friends of his behind the building. Lacey escapes and comes to the conclusion that maybe she shouldn’t move in with him (you think?), and maybe her friends aren’t really quality people (really?). She meets Everett, a Very Sexy Guy, in the bar that night, and for some inexplicable reason he is wildly attracted to her. They become friends, then more, as Lacey tries to clean up her life. Everett is the moon and stars, until she (thinks she) finds out his Horrible Secret and, without asking any questions, drops him like a cement balloon. Until his dying sister (yes, really) comes out of nowhere and confesses The Truth to her, and she begs his forgiveness. Meanwhile, after years of poorly explained estrangement, Lacey picks up the phone and contacts people she should have called five years ago, who take steps to solve the dilemma of her abusive family and help protect her younger brother.
Annoying forced drama and a heroine who will call her abusive ex-boyfriend on the cellphone she bought to avoid him when she needs a little help: Skip it.Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-04851-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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