A popular series shows strain.
The soap opera never stops in the latest installment of Thomas’s Venus Johnston series (Nappily Married, 2007, etc.).
Venus, now Johnston-Parson, and husband Jake Parson surface in Atlanta, having survived the murder charges (and more) that chased them from L.A. But their new life with Venus’s beloved daughter Mya is already under threat. Venus’s ex, Airic Fisher, whom all believe to be Mya’s biological father, has married gospel singer Trevelle Doval. The TV and recording superstar believes her life won’t be complete until she and Airic have a daughter, and since she’s unable to conceive she’s set her sights on Mya. Framing this battle, which will bring up Jake’s rap past and Venus’s emotional tribulations as possible proof of parental unfitness, is the story of Judge Delma Hawkins. More than qualified for a higher position, she’s stuck handling routine domestic cases by virtue of her gender. She’s lonely, despite the companionship of Hudson, her handsome clerk, and she’s living with the secret of how she adopted her adored daughter Keisha. Thomas neatly weaves issues of family, parental and social responsibility into the domestic dramas, padding a skimpy story. She manages to give reasonably distinct voices to the major players, who alternately narrate events. But when things start to heat up, enjoyable African-American chick-lit degenerates into bad romance. The mix of down-home and steamy gets downright silly when Thomas has the judge confess that the “hypnotic glory of one man’s big long richness [made] her do things she was shamed to say out loud.” The fun runs out long before the plot devices do, and they’re hardly worth bothering with, since the resolution is trumpeted far in advance.
A popular series shows strain.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36131-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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