A complicated heroine and a sexy chef mix it up in an uneven amnesia romance that might leave some readers with a sour...
Scandal meets While You Were Sleeping in a D.C.–set romance.
Leighton Clarke is a ruthless and powerful Washington lobbyist, the daughter of a prominent African-American political family. She’s engaged to fellow power broker Thomas Moran, who's white, but before they can plot world domination, there is the pesky matter of her attraction to his younger brother, Jonathan. Jonathan, a world-class chef, just moved to D.C. to open a new restaurant. Thomas is “suits, salary, societal status,” while Jonathan is "food, friends, and fun.” When Leighton suffers a traumatic brain injury and spends time in a coma, Thomas asks Jonathan to pose as her fiance to deal with the doctors while he concludes a business deal in London. When Leighton emerges from the coma with amnesia, Jonathan keeps up the charade without telling his brother. Book 3 in Livesay’s (Along Came Love, 2016, etc.) Shades of Love series, featuring interracial couples, suffers from the paternalism and duplicity the amnesia trope requires. Leighton’s vulnerability and anxiety are touchingly portrayed, although it's hard to understand why she never checks her social media accounts. Leighton’s accident helps her grow emotionally when she realizes her cynicism is less the inevitable result of living in D.C. and more a defensive reaction to some damning revelations about her parents. Jonathan is sexy and sweet, but the deceit at the heart of his romance with Leighton, both toward her and toward his brother, makes their relationship a tough sell. A visit by the two couples from the previous books is a welcome, and amusing, diversion.
A complicated heroine and a sexy chef mix it up in an uneven amnesia romance that might leave some readers with a sour aftertaste.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-249783-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 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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