Lawrence blends romance, action, and beautiful scenery into an alluring concoction.
A fiendish merchant-ship captain is more invested in taking precious material from a South Pacific island than trading with locals in Lawrence’s debut adventure novel.
In the late 19th century, an Australian merchant navy ship lands at the island of Alofa. Islander Kira Wall is wary because previous traders who’d visited were greedy men who carelessly trampled through fields of plants and fruits. She doesn’t trust Capt. Coleman in the slightest. He seems too eager to offer bountiful goods, as if he were trying to distract the natives. Sure enough, Coleman is secretly scouring Alofa for diamonds that a pirate said he’d discovered on the island. The normally standoffish Kira struggles with her newfound affection for the handsome Dr. Trevor Marshall, the ship’s civilian physician and botanist, and they both look for a way to avoid a conflict between the crew and islanders. Meanwhile, Coleman tries to force Kira into revealing the diamonds’ location by kidnapping her best friend. Despite the tropical-paradise setting, this romance doesn’t dawdle. Instead, it follows two people falling in love while immersed in suspenseful scenes and the occasional action sequence. Kira is a laudable but bewildering protagonist. Her distrust of outsiders, for example, is odd, as she herself is the daughter of missionaries who came to Alofa. But she more than holds her own, boasting a thorough knowledge of the island’s interior and proving a formidable adversary in scuffles with men. Lawrence conveys the developing relationship between Kira and Trevor primarily via sex scenes, but the duo still has emotional resonance. As a villain, the captain is a worthy opponent (he even uses dynamite) with an ever present arrogance, while the few loyal crew members who stand by him are really just extensions of his corruption. The final act, in which Coleman targets Kira’s loved ones and inevitably faces off against her, could be trimmed, but it maintains momentum and delivers a satisfying finale.
Lawrence blends romance, action, and beautiful scenery into an alluring concoction.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500602970
Page Count: 386
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and unpredictable; Reid makes a compelling argument for happiness in every life.
Reid’s latest (After I Do, 2014, etc.) explores two parallel universes in which a young woman hopes to find her soul mate and change her life for the better.
After ending an affair with a married man, Hannah Martin is reunited with her high school sweetheart, Ethan, at a bar in Los Angeles. Should she go home with her friends and catch up with him later, or should they stay out and have another drink? It doesn’t seem like either decision would have earth-shattering consequences, but Reid has a knack for finding skeletons in unexpected closets. Two vastly different scenarios play out in alternating chapters: in one, Hannah and Ethan reconnect as if no time has passed; in the other, Hannah lands in the hospital alone after a freak accident that marks the first of many surprising plot twists. Hannah’s best friend, Gabby, believes in soul mates, and though Hannah has trouble making decisions—even when picking a snack from a vending machine—she and Gabby discover how their belief systems can alter their world as much as their choices. “Believing in fate is like living on cruise control,” Hannah says. What follows is a thoughtful analysis of free will versus fate in which Hannah finds that disasters can bring unexpected blessings, blessings can bring unexpected disasters, and that most people are willing to bring Hannah her favorite cinnamon rolls. “Because even when it looks like she’s made a terrible mistake,” Hannah’s mother observes, “things will always work out for Hannah.” The larger question becomes whether Hannah’s choices will ultimately affect her happiness—and it’s one that’s answered on a hopeful note as Hannah tries to do the right thing in every situation she faces.
Entertaining and unpredictable; Reid makes a compelling argument for happiness in every life.Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-7688-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Washington Square/Pocket
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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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