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SATED

Heavy with sexual passages and light on difficulties, readers who have enjoyed Talia in prior books will find comfort in her...

From author Devour (Unrequited, 2013) comes Book 3 in a series about the rich, confidant, sexy Talia Jacobs.

Talia has finally found her soul mate. Bodhi is a man who appeals to Talia on every level. Talia tells him, “I love you so fucking much it scares the shit out of me.” Having met early on in life when both were living in Haiti, their reunion as adults stirs emotional bliss and sexual passion, which is explicitly described: “The length of his hand extended as he used his fingers to caress my swollen passion through saturated panties from behind.” All is well, until Bodhi has his misgivings. After a trip with Talia to Australia, passions suddenly cool. Blaming the trip for lost business ventures, Bodhi brings the relationship to a standstill, an event echoed by the outside world; Talia notices “a flock of ravens coming towards the window…. I knew something wasn’t right.” Traveling to China to deal with the breakup, Talia learns martial arts from monks and consults with a magical figure known as Grandma Li. Will the two reunite, or must Talia again wander the globe in search of lasting love? The answer comes rather quickly, causing the second half of the book to be full of erotic passages (“I could feel warmth generating from his hands being so close to my honey hole”), though it’s short on conflict. Talia fills her days with tantric lovemaking and naughty activities at the movie theater, but dramatic tension is largely absent. The final chapters serve as a victory lap for the woman who cannot fail. Still adventurous in the bedroom, Talia finds plenty of ways to achieve orgasm as the series comes to a close.

Heavy with sexual passages and light on difficulties, readers who have enjoyed Talia in prior books will find comfort in her newfound complacency.

Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2013

ISBN: 978-0992299941

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Publicious Self-Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2014

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BETWEEN SISTERS

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

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THE ALCHEMIST

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind. 

 The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility. 

 Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

Pub Date: July 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-06-250217-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993

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