Mallery delivers another engaging romance in magical Fool’s Gold.
Patience McGraw fell hard for best friend Justice Garrett when she was a teenager, before he disappeared overnight without saying goodbye; now he’s back in Fool’s Gold, perhaps to stay, and they’ll have to untangle their emotions and shared attraction to decide if they might have a future.
Fool’s Gold, Calif. is special, and Justice has never forgotten the small town he hid out in for a short time while he was in the witness protection program. He’s also never forgotten Patience, the girl he befriended, and secretly fell for, before he had to leave in the middle of the night, danger on his heels. Now, years later, he’s looking at property in Fool’s Gold to open an elite security academy, and he’ll use the opportunity to catch up with Patience, tell her the truth about his mysterious disappearance and apologize for the abrupt way he had to leave. However, Justice doesn’t expect to be bowled over by the beautiful woman she’s grown into or the sweet, open personality she’s maintained. Attraction flares between them almost immediately, but she’s not sure she can trust him with her heart again, and he doesn’t think he should let her try. His life is chaotic and dangerous, the very antithesis of halcyon Fool’s Gold. Plus, his father was an abusive bully, and he’s not completely convinced he’s a good bet as a family man. Yet the more time he spends with Patience, the more he wants to beat the odds. Mallery re-visits popular Fool’s Gold and offers yet another sweet, sexy story with alpha hero Justice and never-forgotten girl-next-door heroine Patience. A couple of missteps, including a cast of secondary characters that is at times too sprawling, don’t ultimately undermine a satisfying plot.
Mallery delivers another engaging romance in magical Fool’s Gold.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-373-77760-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
