Strictly for fans—mostly under18—who can’t get enough of the Web site. Warning: Gushy, girlish prose throughout, with triple...
A twentysomething woman in New York . . . sound familiar? Not surprising.
Download Macromedia Flash Player 6 and you can check out Vivian Livingston on the Web at www.vivianlives.com. Tour her cute apartment, feed her cute dog, and rummage through her cute clutter. You can even click and flush her cartoon toilet or peek at her cool clothes! Vivian’s totally cool Web site gets more than six million hits a month and bristles with marketing links. Yes, Vivian has promotional deals with car companies, beauty products, trendy stores, girl magazines, and the greatest retail shrine of all, Bloomingdale’s. At least this pretend autobiography by Vivian’s amanuensis (and shameless shill) Sherrie Krantz doesn’t require that you provide your age, sex, and home address in order to read it. But we already know so much about Vivian: she went to Penn State, ended an abusive relationship with a frat hunk, moved to New York with her BFF (Best Friend Forever) after winning a songwriting contest, has a cool job as a glorified assistant at VH1, has straight and gay friends, can’t get her life together but has a lot of fun trying. Men: studly poet Patrick is great in bed but a cheater at heart, and tall handsome John, who’s like an investment banker or an attorney or something, is all wrapped up in himself. Work keeps Vivian busy, even if arrogant boss Zack won’t give her the promotion she deserves. Still, her next assignment is a plum: an all-star auto race in California. When she’s back in New York, a new romance blossoms with Jack, an Italian-American firefighter. Tragedy is averted when Vivian’s BFF’s stupid boyfriend accidentally sets fire to her apartment, but no one is hurt and the cute dog is rescued. Life goes on!!!
Strictly for fans—mostly under18—who can’t get enough of the Web site. Warning: Gushy, girlish prose throughout, with triple exclamation points, triple question marks, and emoticons.Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45354-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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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