An ensemble comedy with a healthy dose of humorous back-stabbing.
A woman newly released from prison reunites with her family of con artists to find out which one turned her in.
The only life that Jillian Moorewood has ever known is a dishonest one. Growing up in a family of scammers meant that any semblance of a straightforward childhood wouldn't be possible—but now, 39 months after going to prison, she’s back and ready to make her relatives go legit. Granted, when Jillian shows up at home in Newport, Rhode Island, everyone is more than prepared to deny that they'd agreed to the condition she'd imposed before going to jail for all of them: that they'd go legit. This wayward daughter has a few tricks up her sleeve, though, and they all start and end with hitting the rest of the family where it hurts: in their bank accounts. Jillian's relatives are less than thrilled about her ultimatum, but are they irritated enough to attempt to off her themselves? Enter the intimidating and distractingly handsome bodyguard Beck Romer, whom Jillian initially hires to protect her from her diabolical family—but the two discover that their connection is even more intense than that of boss and employee. There's little time for the possibility of love, though, when Jillian is not only trying to find out who was responsible for sending her to prison in the first place, but also dodging retaliation from relatives left and right. Dimon's latest is lighter on romance than most of her books, leaning more significantly into the wacky interpersonal hijinks of its premise. Readers who enjoy dysfunctional family dynamics will find entertainment here. Given the limited scope of the setting, though, notching up the drama between characters and incorporating more mystery would have served the story even better.
An ensemble comedy with a healthy dose of humorous back-stabbing.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780063297142
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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