An entertaining fantasy with a dash of macabre eroticism.
A woman’s dead-end life is disrupted by a case of child abuse and her own scandalous relationship with a preternaturally mature teenager in Delorme’s occult/mystery/romance novel.
In the year 2025, Sarah Baker is a smart but unappreciated 47-year-old Brooklyn paralegal whom everyone treats like “the wallpaper.” Especially dismissive are her boyfriend, Karl, a lawyer and all-around creep (“She will have the grilled chicken salad because she could do to lose a few pounds,” he tells a waiter) whom she tolerates because he pays her mortgage, and the voices in her head, including those of her mother, father, and dead husband, who insist that she can’t make it on her own. Intrigue surfaces when Sarah gets a case in which Andrew Davies, her firm’s smarmy client, fights his ex-wife for custody of their sons; her internet sleuthing and the kids’ cryptic comments hint at sexual improprieties involving 16-year-old Alex and his bombshell stepmother. Sarah’s outrage is complicated by her own inappropriate attachment to Caio, a 16-year-old Brazilian-born boy she encounters at a playground where he is shooting hoops. He seems to be the perfect lover: a great cook, raptly attuned to her feelings, and, when he expertly seduces her, fabulous in bed. Sarah is guilt-stricken over the apparent statutory rape, but Caio’s quirks, like his possession of a driver’s license stating that he was born in 1956, undermine that narrative while suggesting stranger possibilities. This first book in the author’s Limerent series mixes a realistic portrait of middle-aged despair with a sharply observed legal procedural that shades into a supernatural thriller, all while condemning—and glamorizing—ephebophilia. Her evocative prose remains psychologically subtle and naturalistic while conjuring spooky atmospherics (“Taking the blade gingerly between her fingers, Sarah pushed one corner of it against the skin of her forearm. At first, she felt nothing but a slight resistance. She pushed a little bit harder, and was rewarded with the feeling of a prick followed by a bit of red that appeared under the brightness of the blade”). The result is a somewhat queasy but well-written and captivating melodrama.
An entertaining fantasy with a dash of macabre eroticism.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9798987488003
Page Count: 294
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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