A gentle love story perfect for anyone looking for love amid personal, family, and financial crises.
With her promotion to vice president of digital inventory at a Sonoma winery, Natalie Harper finally has the financial security she's always wanted, but a sudden tragedy sends her home to rescue her late mother's charming bookstore.
Once in San Francisco, Natalie moves back into her childhood home, an eclectic set of apartments above the bookshop, a home she shares with her grandfather Andrew, who is suffering from dementia and other mysterious ailments. Blythe, Natalie's mother, loved books, but she was not a savvy businesswoman. Natalie arrives to find unpaid bills and back taxes. Housed in the historic Sunrose Building, the bookshop certainly has stories of its own to tell: Originally a saloon and brothel, it was eventually bought by Natalie's great-grandparents, who converted it into a home and apothecary. Luckily, “hammer for hire” Peach Gallagher shows up. Strong and gorgeous, the contractor catches Natalie's eye, and he certainly is drawn to the curly-haired proprietress. But Peach doesn't date clients, and Natalie is gun-shy from her previous relationship. Plus, she's already met Peach’s adorable little girl, Dorothy. Natalie isn't about to break up a marriage, but she doesn’t know Peach is actually divorced. Wiggs skillfully manipulates the stock in trade of a master romance novelist as she orchestrates Peach and Natalie's inevitable love story. To challenge Peach, enter Trevor Dashwood, a gorgeous and wealthy children's book author, whose books have already won Dorothy's heart. Hosting a book signing with Trevor might help the store’s bottom line. Meanwhile, Natalie, Peach, and Andrew find historical artifacts hidden in the Sunrose building’s walls. Will it be enough to save the store?
A gentle love story perfect for anyone looking for love amid personal, family, and financial crises.Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-291409-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
A winning romance that deftly balances heft and humor.
Sparks fly when a struggling screenwriter gets the chance of a lifetime to write a rom-com with her hero.
Once upon a time, Emma Wheeler dreamed of being a screenwriter. She put her dream on hold, however, to care for her father, who’s been living with both partial paralysis and Ménière’s disease since an accident 10 years ago. Emma lives for her family now—caring for her father around the clock and doing whatever she can to make sure her younger sister, Sylvie, has the chance to go to college and pursue her passions. But then her manager offers her the miraculous opportunity to help her hero, Charlie Yates, rewrite his first-ever romantic comedy. Charlie typically writes big, blockbuster action films—romantic comedies aren’t his forte, and his first attempt is terrible. But romance is very much in Emma’s wheelhouse, and she knows exactly what Charlie needs to make his screenplay sing. The only problem? He very much does not want her help. He also doesn’t like rom-coms and may not even believe in love. But Emma’s living in Charlie’s fancy L.A. house for six weeks, there to help him rebuild his very flawed movie, and she’s ready to work. Before the screenplay can get better, she has to teach Charlie a few things about romantic comedies (and life in general). This means going line dancing and maybe even kissing…for research purposes. Center, the prolific author of many romances (Hello Stranger, 2023, etc.), clearly understands what it takes to create a winning romantic comedy and puts Charlie and Emma through many of the most delightful rom-com tropes (enemies to lovers, forced proximity). But the book, like all of Center’s work, doesn’t completely eschew darkness—both Emma and Charlie are dealing with trauma and grief. Emma’s feelings of guilt and responsibility toward her family make her journey toward a happily-ever-after with Charlie feel all the more satisfying—as Emma’s dad wisely says, “Happiness is always better with a little bit of sadness.”
A winning romance that deftly balances heft and humor.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781250283801
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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