Delightful frolic from the author of the Bubbles series (Bubbles Betrothed, 2005, etc.), featuring an authentic woman who...
Overweight and overlooked, Nola Devlin secretly recreates herself as the nation's sexiest advice columnist.
When Nola learns that the tabloid where she works as an editor is looking for a hot advice columnist, she eagerly applies for the job. However, thanks to her bulging belly and frumpy clothes, she is quickly dismissed. On a whim, she resends the company her résumé—this time with a new name, Belinda Apple, a London address and a sexy, mostly fake photo. Her bosses eat it up. Next thing she knows, she's churning out copy from London (wink, wink) and is the next big British sensation to hit the States. Absolutely everyone loves her wit, her charm and those cute pink cowboy boots she wears in her photo. In the meantime, back in the real world, Nola and two of her equally overweight friends have decided that it's time to curtail the cheesecake. The three enter into a pact—based on advice Belinda suggested in one of her columns—to lose weight and get healthy. As Nola struggles with her diet, she's also starting to feel crushed beneath the weight of her secret. None of her friends or family is aware of her alternative identity. And trouble is looming when she receives a note from the publisher saying that he is beginning to doubt that Belinda exists. All of a sudden, everyone, from the publisher's sexy son to Hollywood movie studios, is clamoring for a meeting with Belinda. Can Nola pull it off?
Delightful frolic from the author of the Bubbles series (Bubbles Betrothed, 2005, etc.), featuring an authentic woman who can't help but dabble in a little bit of fantasy.Pub Date: June 15, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-94957-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun and fast-moving read, and better edited than many of Laurens’ past efforts. Highly recommended.
A straight-laced Glasgow businessman is drawn back into clan politics and a romance with a woman from a neighboring estate.
Laurens (By Winter’s Light, 2014, etc.) returns to her popular Cynster series with this romantic mystery set in mid-19th-century Scotland. Thomas Carrick is looking for “the right sort of wife for a gentleman of the type he intended to become—a pillar of the wealthy business community.” But a plea for help from farmers on his uncle’s estate causes him to abandon Glasgow suddenly. His wastrel cousins are taking advantage of their father the laird’s lingering illness to plunder the clan’s coffers. Thomas is determined to set things right, even though it means encountering the witchy woman on the next estate, Lucilla Cynster, who has held him in thrall for many years. Lucilla, on the other hand, has been waiting for Thomas to figure out that a marriage between them has been preordained by the Lady, a local deity embodied by Lucilla’s mother. She believes Thomas is her consort, chosen by the Lady to be the future caretaker of Lucilla and her people. Together, they work to solve the mystery of recent foul deeds on Carrick land and have fabulous sex around the edges. The book falls prey to the annoying tics common in Laurens’ prose (can you really sigh inwardly, catch your mental breath, mentally blink or rock back on your mental heels?) but is a fairly successful example of cross-genre experiments in which classic mystery and historical romance and even fantasy tropes are combined. The solution to the mystery is wonderfully unpredictable, and both Thomas and Lucilla are flawed and likable characters.
A fun and fast-moving read, and better edited than many of Laurens’ past efforts. Highly recommended.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1782-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another brilliant odyssey from Bouchet.
Tess Bailey and her crew agree to a rescue mission which is practically suicidal, but as they prepare, she discovers deep secrets about her past that may give her and her rebel allies more leverage in their battle for freedom from the Galactic Overseer, though at great cost.
Nightchaser Tess Bailey, her ship, Endeavor, and her rebel crew—which now includes her lover, Shade Ganavan, until recently a Dark Watch bounty hunter—have been given the task of freeing Reena Ahern, a scientist who could save Demeter Terre, a planet that was poisoned by the Galactic Overseer when it stood up to him, killing 90% of its population. Unfortunately, Reena is imprisoned on Starbase 12, “the most secure place in the known universe.” First, though, Tess and Shade have a meeting with her uncle, Nathaniel Bridgebane, second-in-command to the Overseer, during which Tess realizes her uncle is likely an ally. They also meet his lieutenant, Sanaa Mwende, who joins their crew and helps Tess get a clearer picture of the dangerous game her uncle has played all these years. As the crew prepares for their rescue mission, Tess' first love reappears; then the crew agrees to a smaller job liberating some food supplies during a Dark Watch personnel switch and wind up rescuing hundreds of people the Overseer captured for their superblood—which, like Tess', is impervious to disease and heals extremely quickly. The stakes rise as people across the galaxy are about to be tagged and tracked, all in order to find the blood that will be used to create an army of supersoldiers, annihilating any possible rebellion. Help for their mission also leads to more secrets regarding Tess’ past being revealed, setting up more hope and more danger for the next book in the series. The Nightchaser space opera continues with tons of action, romance, pathos, and fascinating worldbuilding.
Another brilliant odyssey from Bouchet.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6716-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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