by Terri Wolffe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2011
A lusty, lightweight romp.
An earl’s wife kidnaps and seduces a duke, only to fall in love with him.
In London 1796, a veiled woman approaches Lucien Brandford IV, the Duke of Carlsborough, and tells him that his former lover Lady Catherine has been injured. Concerned, the Duke boards a coach expecting to find the Lady, but once inside he is bound and drugged, then taken to an undisclosed location where he is shackled, blindfolded, to a four-poster bed. His captor, “Madame Dictator,” is lovely Lucinda Davenport, the young wife of elderly Lord Joshua Davenport, Earl of Compton, whose age and frailty have rendered him incapable of procreation. To ensure the family line, Lucinda has chosen vigorous and vital Lucien from a handful of candidates as the man to implant her with his seed—if only he will comply. Initially, the Duke refuses, demands his freedom and threatens to have his abductors captured and hanged. Although sexually naive, Lucinda is not easily put off. Under her spell, the duke becomes not merely compliant but a willing and inventive partner of remarkable stamina who delivers the goods again and again. Over the course of a few days at the Earl’s country estate, Lucien and Lucinda fall in love, and she finds fulfillment as a woman. Their romantic, sexual idyll is short-lived, however; Lucien has served his purpose. Both Lucien and Lucinda are appealing, if not particularly bright, characters, and certainly pleasant enough to accompany for a few rounds of bodice ripping. Their over-the-top sexploits are at times unintentionally humorous: “her body was exploding with yet another torrential organism.” The emotional connection between the lovers is believable, but the plot is simplistic, if not implausible. Surely, there are strapping country lads aplenty who could do the deed for a pittance. Why kidnap a duke and risk the gallows? But let us not quibble. In turbulent times, a bit of light-hearted fare is the coin of the realm.
A lusty, lightweight romp.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2011
ISBN: B004MME1HA
Page Count: 215
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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