Well-crafted characters and an inventive plot.
A charming sequel to A Most Unlikely Duke (2017).
Unwed at the advanced age of 22, Lady Amelia is fully aware that her chances of making a good match are dwindling by the day. Her brother understands this, too, which is why he has asked his friend Thomas, Duke of Coventry, to help his sister find a husband before the season ends. Now, anyone who has ever read a Regency romance—or seen a Shakespeare comedy or watched a movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant—knows how this story will end, but that’s an essential element of the genre. No one reads Regency for cliffhangers and dramatic plot twists. The fun is in experiencing an old tale made fresh, and Barnes certainly delivers that. She wastes no time in establishing that her heroine and hero are attracted to each other, and the stumbling blocks on their way to happily-ever-after feel honest rather than contrived. Amelia isn’t just a woman of woefully advanced age; she is also a woman new to society, trying to adapt to her new station after a childhood of poverty and degradation, which ended when her brother unexpectedly inherited a title. Her desire for independence is complicated—she doesn’t want to marry without love, but she doesn’t want to be a lifelong burden on her brother, either—and she is discovering that shopping for bonnets and taking tea with the gentry don’t give her the same sense of purpose and accomplishment that caring for her brother and her sisters did. Her desire to do something meaningful turns into a plan that brings her into conflict with Thomas, but it also happens to fit with his own liberal (for his day) political leanings. This is all to say that Barnes creates early-18th-century characters that appeal to contemporary sensibilities without requiring strenuous suspension of disbelief. But this is still an entertainment—more Barbara Cartland than Elizabeth Gaskell—and there is real pleasure in seeing these characters joyfully united.
Well-crafted characters and an inventive plot.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 0-06-256682-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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