Strives to be both love story and crime novel, sometimes succeeding in the effort, sometimes not.
In White’s novel, misunderstandings and murder can lead to love.
Julie Ross is not the type of girl to have a one-night stand, but after literally running into the beautiful and charismatic Jake Reynolds, she can’t resist. But her night of passion leaves her nothing but brokenhearted and pregnant. Years later, Julie has become a successful lawyer, raising her young son on her own. But yet again her life is about to be thrown into turmoil as her childhood friend, Jenny, has just been accused of a heinous crime: killing her infant son. Intent on helping her friend and proving her innocence, Julie and her sister travel to Birmingham. And in a twist only found in romance novels and romantic comedies, Julie just happens to learn that the lawyer representing her friend is none other than Jake Reynolds himself. It’s hard to decide whether White’s novel is a crime novel disguised as a romance or a romance disguised as a crime novel. White’s experience as a real-life lawyer definitely informs her characters; Julie and Jake both come across as credible and competent lawyers. White deftly handles a complicated plot, juggling Jenny’s evil husband, Paul; corrupt police and prosecutors; and an abused mistress who knows the truth. It is only Julie and Jake's romance that feels underdeveloped. White sets up obstacles for the two that include Julie believing Jake was a cheating husband and Jake not knowing he has a son. With a relationship that feels built purely on sexual attraction and little else, their will-they-or-won’t-they storyline is the least interesting aspect of the novel as the reader guesses that a happy ending is in the offing. Still, other relationships in the novel—such as the friendship among Julie, her sister, and Jenny—give life to the melodrama. Their three-way friendship is an authentic look at female bonding.
Strives to be both love story and crime novel, sometimes succeeding in the effort, sometimes not.Pub Date: May 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-1469949741
Page Count: 228
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.
A TV producer and a detective try to stop a strange pattern of young women disappearing.
In “Auclair, Loooziana,” disillusioned detective John Bowie reluctantly meets in a bar with Beth Collins, producer for the true crime show Crisis Point. She needs to interview him about the disastrous case of the missing Crissy Mellin, but he refuses. The teenager disappeared three years ago on the night of a blood moon and hasn’t been found, but a suspect hanged himself in jail after signing a confession. Case closed, says John’s boss. But John is convinced that their prisoner could not have been guilty, and he’s deeply upset at his failure. “The Mellin case messed up your life,” Beth tells him. She persuades John that Crissy’s disappearance is the latest of a series that happen on the night of a blood moon, the colloquial term for a total lunar eclipse. “It’s going to happen again,” she predicts. And wouldn’t you know, another blood moon is coming in four days. Tick, tick, tick. Beth’s boss at Crisis Point insists on airing an update on the case, but Beth knows the show is going to get it wrong, and its reputation will be ruined. Meanwhile, there’s an electric sexual tension between Beth and John that the author toys with nicely—do they, or don’t they? The answer plays out in detail more than once. The characters are fun if easy to pigeonhole: the detective angry at his failure, the honest (and beautiful) outsider eager to do her job but susceptible to love, the hero’s corrupt (to say the least) boss, and the ogre who carries out said boss’s dirtiest deeds. Even John’s dog, Mutt, plays a small but vital role. When John found him, he’d been “a flea-bitten hide wrapped around a skeleton that whimpered.” Little plot devices are easy to spot, like the phone that rings at a crucial moment, or the handgun that John places in Beth’s hand for her protection. Does Chekhov’s guideline apply here? The romantic angle leavens the dark theme, and readers will have plenty of incentives to turn the pages.
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538742983
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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