A light but satisfying love story perfect for fans of beer, medicine, and second chances.
A contemporary romance follows a single dad and the self-sufficient doctor who catches his eye while she tries to escape her own checkered past.
Ewens (Exposure, 2017, etc.) opens her tale as Boyd McNaughton, brew master at Foghorn Brewery, attempts to perfect a new flavor of beer. He cuts his hand on a device called a keggle, whereupon he rushes himself to Petaluma Valley Hospital and meets Dr. Ella Walters, a beautiful physician. Days later, Boyd’s teen son, Mason, meets his dad at the hospital when he’s getting his stitches removed. Mason is focused more on his search for love advice about a girl at school than on his father’s injury. When Ella chimes in on the father-son conversation with some romantic tips of her own for Mason, an immediate bond is forged between Ella and the boy, and Boyd’s curiosity is piqued. Following their first meeting, Boyd tries to suppress his interest in Ella, determining that he shouldn’t disrupt the calm life he has built for himself and Mason by introducing a woman into the mix. Unfortunately, it seems as though he is suddenly running into Ella everywhere around town, and it is impossible for him to push her from his thoughts. Ella is wary of Boyd, especially in light of the turbulent relationship she left behind in her hometown of Los Angeles. Even so, she can’t seem to prevent herself from being drawn to Boyd—and Mason too. As Boyd and Ella try to work through their own baggage, the reader can enjoy the ride, watching them wend their ways toward each other. Despite a predictable plot strand, Ewens manages to create page-turning romantic suspense. A seemingly airy tale, the story still tackles many weighty issues, from parental abandonment to the difficulty of establishing lasting interpersonal connections. With a fast-paced narrative and the deft employment of an unlikely couple, a device that seems to have become the author’s hallmark, the book provides an entertaining tale that is as insightful as it is flirtatious.
A light but satisfying love story perfect for fans of beer, medicine, and second chances.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9976838-7-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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