A cat that’s used up eight of his nine lives makes a deal to preserve his last one in this light romance from the author of The Snow Globe (2010, etc.).
Ambrose is up a tree, but that’s no surprise because there’s a snarling dog below him. Having run through eight previous lives, none of which ended well, he strikes a desperate cosmic bargain to preserve his last one by promising to make a difference in someone’s life. At the very moment the orange tabby is about to become toast, a kind stranger shows up, chases away the dog and saves him. Understanding that he has to deliver on his promise, Ambrose follows him home and ingratiates himself into the man’s life. The kind stranger turns out to be a firefighter named Zach who is convinced he doesn’t need another relationship. Zach has been hurt in the past, both by his mother’s abrupt abandonment when he was a child and by an old flame. Although a confirmed bachelor, Zach, a firefighter, has a girlfriend: the beautiful, brittle, self-absorbed Blair, a spoiled rich girl who both hates Ambrose and wants Zach’s attention all to herself. It’s Christmas and Zach dreads the whole fa-la-la-la-la thing, but he can’t turn the cat out into the cold, so he hits Pet Palace for cat supplies and meets Merilee. Merilee is naturally beautiful, but sadly out-of-sync with make-up, clothes and modern female predation methods. She also knows all about cats. Following the cute meet, Ambrose plots ways to make Christmas and the infant romance between the two turn happy in this connect-the-dots story that leaves no romantic cliché unturned. More of a novella than a novel, Roberts’ book is a breezy read aimed at the Yuletide market, but it’s so slight in both plot and length that many readers may feel cheated. The author also has a distracting predilection for dotting each page with multiple parenthetical phrases. While it may kill an afternoon, readers shouldn’t hope for anything more than a predictable plot, loads of pop-culture references and a small, albeit pleasant break from the demands of everyday life.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-59449-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal...
A gumbo seasoned with ghosts, love, and murder on the bayou.
When 30-something Declan Fitzgerald of Boston, a successful lawyer and a member of a large and loving family, breaks off his engagement to very suitable Jessica, he knows he needs to change his life. Lawyering is not fun anymore, so, recalling Manet Hall, an old deserted plantation house he once visited with law school classmate and New Orleans native Remy, he buys the property and moves down south. Declan is also a gifted craftsman, a born decorator, and very, very rich. Soon, he meets beautiful Lena, who’s visiting her grandmother Odette, Declan’s friendly Cajun neighbor. Declan is as certain that Lena is destined to be his wife as he was that Manet Hall would become his home. But, surprise, Lena has a troubled past (like the house) and is determined to resist Declan’s courtship. While he suits Lena and works on the place, Declan experiences troubling dreams. It seems he’s actually reliving the novel’s parallel story, which took place in 1899. In that year, the maid, Abbey Manet (from whom Lena, coincidentally, is descended, and who married wealthy Lucian Manet), was raped and murdered by her brother-in-law Julian as she nursed her baby daughter. Her body was dumped into the bayou by her mother-in-law, who despised her. And grief-stricken husband Lucian, away at the time, being told that Abbey had run off, committed suicide. Now, in an unconvincing twist of gender and reincarnation, it’s Declan who hears a baby crying , experiences childbirth and rape as the reincarnation of Abbey, while Lena is Lucian. The two accept all this with equanimity, and, Manet Hall’s secrets revealed, it becomes the setting for predictable and much foreshadowed resolutions.
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal fans will enjoy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14824-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
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