With its action-packed plot hinged on an intriguing paranormal frame and a touching, red-hot romance, this is a great read...
Two damaged souls find each other and some surprising psychic gifts as they fight a string of enemies who want them dead—or worse.
Alex Aaro has spent most of his life distancing himself from his Ukrainian Mafia roots but risks his freedom and new identity to fly back to NYC to say goodbye to his dying aunt, the only person on earth he loves. During his visit, his friend Bruno calls on him to help Nina, a woman who’s been attacked and injected with an unknown drug. The only clues to the drug or its antidote are in a recording on Nina’s cellphone in what seems to be Russian. At first antagonistic toward one another, Nina and Aaro must overcome their hostility to work together to thwart enemies new and old, especially once they realize that the drug is a ticking time bomb that leaves Nina dead in days if they don’t find the answers they need. The drug is a psychic enhancer, and both Aaro and Nina become aware of psychic abilities they never understood they possessed. As their psychic powers strengthen, the journey grows more perilous and harrowing, and Nina and Aaro must lower their masks and place absolute trust in each other, something neither of them has ever done. Doing so cracks them open and creates a soul-deep bond of love, but will it be enough to save them, mind, body and spirit? This is McKenna’s newest erotic romantic suspense with paranormal aspects—psychic powers and a shady underworld attached to the enhancing drug—and the book offers captivating characters, explosive action and sizzling sexual tension. The world she’s set up is believable and intriguing, and despite some complex character and plot development, the story flows smoothly and with page-turning excitement and intensity. The book will appeal especially to romantic suspense fans, but anyone who likes good romance, great action and sexually intense situations will enjoy it. Avoid it if you dislike profanity—Aaro and many of the villainous secondary characters use bad language like table salt—or are offended by graphic descriptions of sex. McKenna fans will be happy to see secondary characters from other books in the McCloud series.
With its action-packed plot hinged on an intriguing paranormal frame and a touching, red-hot romance, this is a great read for its intended audience.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2012
ISBN: 9780758273475
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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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