An often engaging story with dark and sensual elements.
A young woman falls for her mysterious employer in Warren’s modern, erotic reimagining of Jane Eyre.
All Jane Mendoza wants is to help others. Not long out of high school, where she was valedictorian, she dreams of going to college to become a social worker. After the death of her beloved father, Jane was bounced through the Texas foster care system until she was 18 and then worked two jobs in Houston to make ends meet. A new opportunity to provide live-in care for Paige Rochester, a troubled first grader who’s also lost her parents, requires a move to Maine but will provide Jane with the funds she needs for her future. When she arrives at the Rochester estate on a stormy night, she immediately butts heads with Paige’s uncle Beau, a shipping magnate and former playboy who isn’t thrilled with his new role as Paige’s guardian or Jane’s presence as her nanny. Almost immediately, however, the sizzling shared chemistry between Jane and Beau is obvious to both of them, and a clandestine physical relationship ensues. As Jane forges an emotional connection with little Paige and struggles with feelings for her boss, she begins to realize that not all at the Rochester home is what it seems. Romance author Warren possesses a love for Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic that’s beautifully apparent throughout the book, from Jane’s explorations of the forbidden attic space to her breathtaking, weighted exchanges with the modern-day Mr. Rochester. Jane is a compelling heroine from beginning to end—a young woman with a wealth of real-world experience and a dream to make the world better for kids facing circumstances that she herself barely survived. Her relationship with Paige, always one step forward and two steps back, feels realistic and eventually quite rewarding, and her attraction to and frustration with Beau make the novel a page-turner. Some readers may wonder about the appropriateness of a boss-employee romance although Jane and Beau’s connection feels consensual.
An often engaging story with dark and sensual elements.Pub Date: March 5, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-71-702158-6
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Haphazard and undemanding.
A sports agent’s first official client is the man she dumped years ago in college.
After two years of hard work as an underling, Nora Mackenzie is finally being promoted to full-time sports agent. She’s worked hard, kept quiet, and allowed men in the office to call her Mac—a nickname she hates—all to show she’s a team player and “one of the guys.” Unfortunately, her boss instructs her to sign Derek Pender, a football player coming off an injury, who happens to be the man she heartlessly dumped in their senior year of college. Derek signs with her for revenge, seeing it as his opportunity to pay Nora back for callously breaking his heart eight years earlier. He insists she be at his beck and call: answering his emails, running his errands, cooking dinner for his dates. He also refuses to let her explain why she broke up with him without warning or explanation. Nora feels she has no choice but to acquiesce to Derek’s humiliating demands, since she’s worked too hard to let him ruin her dream job. She hopes he’ll thaw and they might become friends, but Derek’s bad behavior is designed to hide the fact that he’s still in love with her. Nora’s characterization is uneven, veering between anger at how she’s treated in the male-dominated field to immature bickering and bantering with Derek. Although Adams likely meant for Derek and Nora’s interactions to have an enemies-to-lovers vibe, the characters instead seem juvenile and stuck in the past. The novel is fueled by a string of tropes—second chance romance! married in Vegas! only one bed!—each randomly deployed to keep the book going despite thin characterization and wan plotting.
Haphazard and undemanding.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723678
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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