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
Kinsella’s many fans will devour this warm and hilarious read.
An IOU from a cute stranger gets complicated in this fun story about family, loyalty, and taking charge of your own life.
Fixie Farr, as her nickname suggests, has always loved to fix things. Most of her fixing is confined to her family's West London store, Farr’s, which she's run with her mother since her father’s death. Her siblings, Jake and Nicole, are mostly useless, and Fixie knows it’s up to her to protect her dad’s legacy. When she’s at a coffee shop one day, a man asks her to watch his laptop. While he’s away, the ceiling above his table caves in, and Fixie can’t stop herself from leaping into danger to save the computer. Shocked by her willingness to save the day at the risk of her own safety, the laptop’s owner, Seb, promises her a favor and writes an IOU on a coffee sleeve. Fixie never intends to cash in the favor—after all, she doesn’t know Seb at all, and she’s perfectly capable of handling everything herself—until the love of her life, Ryan, needs a job. Ryan was Jake’s best friend growing up, and Fixie’s had an enormous crush on him her whole life, even after he moved to LA to become a movie producer. But now he’s back in London, and she wants him to stay…so she musters up the courage to contact Seb and redeem the IOU for a job for Ryan. However, it turns out that she and Seb aren’t quite done with each other, and they keep finding more opportunities to owe each other favors. As Fixie tries to work out her feelings for Seb, assert herself to her siblings, and save her family’s store, will she finally be able to stop fixing other people’s lives and start focusing on her own? Kinsella (Surprise Me, 2018, etc.) creates a charming story full of quirky characters and laugh-out-loud dialogue. Fixie is a likable character, one readers will root for as she learns to take control of her own life.
Kinsella’s many fans will devour this warm and hilarious read.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9901-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005,...
Murder mixes with anguish in steamy Savannah.
FBI-trained hostage negotiator Phoebe MacNamara is a lieutenant in the Savannah police department. Ever since Phoebe and her family were held hostage when she was 12, her mother has been agoraphobic, and Phoebe and her brother Carter still bear the psychological scars, but Phoebe’s used the memory to hone her skills. While talking a suicidal bartender off a ledge, she meets his boss, Duncan Swift. The charming millionaire coaxes her into meeting for a drink, and their relationship slowly deepens. But life takes a turn for the worse when a misogynist cop botches a hostage situation. Suspended, he blames Phoebe and retaliates by viciously attacking her in the precinct house stairwell. He loses his job, but his father’s connections keep him out of jail. Phoebe is physically and mentally injured, but her family and her blossoming relationship with Duncan help her cope until a dangerous pattern develops: A strange man keeps crossing her path. Dead animals begin appearing on her doorstep. A hostage taker is shot after she talks him into surrendering. Her ex-husband is brutally murdered by the mystery man, who phones her with sadistic threats. Is it the spiteful disgraced cop or someone from her past? Phoebe must identify the killer before he can carry out his final outrage.
Nerve-wracking suspense leavened with romance and spiced with sex: another hit for the prolific Roberts (Blue Smoke, 2005, etc.).Pub Date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-15434-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
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