A bright, beautiful gem.
When Bollywood star Ria Parkar returns to Chicago for her cousin's wedding after having been away for 10 years, she must face Vikram, the boy she abandoned, who believes she chose a life of wealth and fame over him.
As a child, Ria savored summers at her beloved Aunt Uma’s home in Chicago, spent with her cousin Nikhil and his cousin Vikram. She and Vikram both considered Uma’s home a refuge, but when they fell in love as teens, Vikram’s successful mother made it clear her plans for her son definitely didn’t include Ria, the tainted daughter of a family with a history of mental illness. Self-possessed even at 18, Vikram was ready to claim her, but that was before the shameful family tragedy that compelled Ria to turn her back on their love to protect him, allowing him to believe her capable of betrayal in order to follow fame and fortune with a Bollywood career. Now, a decade later, traveling back to Chicago for Nikhil’s wedding is a minefield of memories, both good and bad, and a reminder of what normal looks like after superstardom in India. Navigating her wounded heart, her Ice Princess facade, a nearly forgotten sea of family love from her childhood, and an angry, beloved boy-turned-man who both wants her and hates her make for a complicated trip, especially once the secrets bubble to the surface, threatening her career and her happiness. Vikram has always been the boy who rescued her, but maybe the time has come for her to confront the past and save them both. Dev’s exquisitely written second novel seamlessly integrates the explosive tension of Ria and Vikram’s love story with the universal complications of family, identity, and feeling like an outsider, even in your own skin. The modern Indian-American setting offers a glimpse of a rich culture and enhances the book’s overt and subtle messages of love, compassion, hope, and common ground.
A bright, beautiful gem.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61773-015-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This long-lost bit of Alcott's early, gothic-romance hack writingwritten for, but never published by, a popular magazine in 1866proves the proposition that not every bit of prose penned by favorite authors is worth the trouble to read. ``I tell you I cannot bear it! I shall do something desperate if this life is not changed soon,'' moans 18-year-old Rosamond, a beautiful orphan confined to the lonely island estate of her grandfather. Fortunately for Rosamond, a handsome visitor has arrived on the island even as she says these wordsa man who strongly reminds Rosamond of the portrait of Mephistopheles hanging in the hall. The resemblance is, of course, prophetic, as the mysterious Phillip Tempest spirits away ``the sweetest piece of womanhood he had ever seen'' on his yacht, marries her at her insistence, and sets up house with her in his luxurious villa near Nice. For a while Rosamond is happy with her older protector and his faithful boy-servant, Ippolitountil she learns that Phillip is already married, that his English wife refuses to divorce him until he surrenders custody of their son, and that their son is in fact Ippolito!. Her heart broken and her virtue compromised, Rosamond flees to Paris, only to find that the evil Phillip is too obsessed with her to leave her in peace, instead committing murder and mayhem in his efforts to recover her. Phillip's desperate schemes and Rosamond's sudden changes of heart grow increasingly arbitrary and erratic as the story rambles on (and as, one imagines, the weary Alcott grows ever more impatient with the job), but it is no surprise that the villain is foiled in the end. Much as one longs for insight into the young author's developing talent, this written-to-order serial sheds more light on what lengths a writer will go to pay for room and board. (First serial to Ladies' Home Journal; film rights to Citadel Entertainment; Literary Guild selection)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-44510-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
The eldest of six beautiful daughters is whirled away to a splendid marriage, and there are certain to be five further romances in the wings as a family tries to recapture its lost fortunes—in a new tale by the author of five previous Regency series. The splendid estate of Mannerling, home of the grand Beverley family, boasts extraordinary sculpture, painting, and decoration, and during the many balls and routs a double row of footmen dressed in gold and red livery line the staircase. Snobby Sir William and Lady Beverley and their six beautiful daughters live in a rarified world where servants are instructed to turn their faces to the wall when the family members pass. Then one day Sir William gambles away it all: house, furnishings, even the lovely little Greek temple. The owner is now the odious Mr. Judd, and the Beverleys move to humble Brookfield House with a drunken cook, one handyman, and a maid. Disaster. Coming to the rescue is kind, brogue-inflected Mrs. Kennedy, aunt of Viscount Fitzpatrick (alas, an Irish peer). It is now the duty of the eldest, Isabella—still unwed after a London season—to marry Mr. Judd and reclaim Mannerling. While Mrs. Kennedy teaches the girls to cook and sew, Isabella discovers something about humble civility and kindness and enjoys the companionship of Fitzpatrick, but she proceeds stolidly to an engagement with Mr. Judd. There'll be humiliation, disgraceful plotting, and the horrid sight of an exploding Greek temple before Isabella loves and sees the light. But now next-in-line Jessica begins to set her sights on the marriageable son of the next owner of Mannerling. Unlike Patricia Veryan, Chesney does not attempt period diction or ambience, but her plotting—precision-paced, pleasingly peopled, predictable, and tidy—is enjoyable. Another easy entertainment from a veteran romancer.
Pub Date: April 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-11749-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995
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