The stakes are high and the heels are higher—a stylish tale of corruption, revenge, and hard-won love.
In this English translation of a Swedish bestseller, a venture capitalist plans a hostile takeover of his enemy’s business but dreams of a merger with the patriarch’s daughter.
A countess by birth, Natalia De la Grip might be the only member of her family who doesn’t work at Investum—she’s the chink in the De la Grip family’s armor, or so thinks David Hammar when he invites her to lunch to pump her for information. Though her bigoted father disapproves of women in leadership roles, Natalia hopes to one day earn a seat on the board of his company, and she won’t betray her father’s trust. But the powerful chemistry between Natalia and David leaves both of them vulnerable. If David backs out now, he’ll never get revenge on the men who ruined his life years ago; if he continues with his plan, he risks losing the woman he loves. Natalia accepts that a broken heart might be the cost of doing business with a self-made but notoriously manipulative investor, but what she doesn’t know about David’s past could destroy her future. David’s duplicity is shocking as he circles the De la Grips and their cronies, pulling them in like fish in a net just when Natalia needs him most. Naïve but fiercely independent, Natalia commands respect as her loyalties are put to the test. With bold prose, Ahrnstedt and translator Chace capture the glamour of the Swedish countryside and the beautiful people who live there—such as Natalia’s friend Asa, who has “curves that would make a twisty, turny Italian mountain road seem straight and uneventful”—while exposing the cracks in their cold, businesslike exteriors.
The stakes are high and the heels are higher—a stylish tale of corruption, revenge, and hard-won love.Pub Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0619-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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