Sex, booze and R&B get in bed together in this fast-paced story of the sordid life of a successful manager in the music industry.
Veteran author White (The Teflon Queen PT3, 2014, etc.) has established his bona fides with his Tears of a Hustler series, Teflon Queen series and various stand-alone titles. In his latest work, the unlucky Yolanda feels her heart breaking every time she’s confronted with evidence of another one of boyfriend Cam’s infidelities. She tries to comfort herself by believing that she’s his main squeeze and that the other women are just flings, but rising R&B singer Honey thinks she’s his primary woman and that Yolanda is just another one of his lady friends. Cam would love to keep both women as steady relationships while still seeking pleasure wherever he can find it; alluring R&B superstar-in-the-making Bambi is definitely one of those pleasures. But when Cam’s ladies start turning up dead or seriously injured, the police can’t help but be suspicious of him. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Cam, he faces deadly danger from an unexpected quarter, and he’ll be forced to confront his own mortality when explosive secrets are revealed. Pacing is swift, with sex, violence or both detailed on most pages. The raw, profanity-laden dialogue has the ring of authenticity, as does overall character development. Plot twists are plentiful, though they start to twist a bit too far as the story wears on. And while grammatical errors make the dialogue sing, they and the pervasive spelling and punctuation errors are less appealing in the main text (e.g., “Trouble fumed as him, Snow, and the rest of the crew road down on the elevator”). Convoluted or repetitive sentence structures further detract, as when White writes: “Before the two got a chance to get physical, a mutual friend stepped in and separated the two before things got violent.” Still, fans of the genre will find this a quick, enjoyable read with all the right touches.
A pulpy, action-packed page-turner.
Pub Date: June 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-0996060912
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Good2go Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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