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
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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