Pure wish fulfillment for readers seeking steamy escapism.
Forbidden love cures all in Gray’s latest, following Come Back to Me (2015).
Didi Monroe is on her way to happily-ever-after. The white doctoral student is on track for her Ph.D. in psychology, is being wooed by a hot movie star, and is interning at a hospital for wounded soldiers. Then Didi meets Lt. Noel Walker, an angry, injured Marine, one of two survivors of an ambush in the most dangerous territory in Afghanistan. Walker suffers from PTSD, survivor’s guilt, a broken knee, and a case of psychosomatic blindness. When the two meet, professional and personal boundaries blur, and as their attraction grows, they struggle to suppress their feelings in every erotically charged encounter. The will-they–won’t-they–of-course-they-will plot keeps the tension high. Gray makes it easy for Didi, giving Walker only a wounded leg and temporary blindness rather than a missing limb or limbs like many of the other soldiers in the hospital. Didi and Walker appear to be white in the cover smooch; characters of color include physiotherapist José; wounded soldier Jésus Sanchez, the only other surviving member of Walker’s unit; Sanchez’s wife (who slaps him way too much); and her cousin, a disturbingly overbearing Latina in a kaftan who sets her sights on any soldier with a heartbeat and is the butt of jokes because she doesn’t meet the dominant beauty ideal.
Pure wish fulfillment for readers seeking steamy escapism. (Fiction. 16 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8847-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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