A wholesome Christmas tale full of adorable characters and unexpected kindnesses.
A Nantucket shopkeeper falls for one of the island’s wealthiest bachelors in this Christmas season feel-good tale.
The novel begins as Christina Antonioni prevents a 9-year-old girl from shoplifting stickers from her Nantucket toy shop. Christina strikes a bargain with the sullen girl, who introduces herself as Wink, convincing the child to come back and work in the store for a short period. If Wink returns, Christina will pay her the meager sum required to purchase the stickers. Wink not only returns, but is so disarming that Christina offers her a regular job. It turns out Wink is the granddaughter of Oscar Bittlesman, one of the richest men on Nantucket. When Wink’s mother visits the store with her brother, Andy, Christina feels an instant attraction to him. She attempts to talk herself out of the crush, relying on internal dialogue that she refers to throughout the story, somewhat artlessly, as her “Inner Christina.” However, Andy takes an interest in her and wears down her defenses. “Her Inner Christina told her she absolutely could not count on this evening amounting to anything at all, but here with him now, so close that they could reach out and touch, all common sense floated away.” Then Christina receives a letter from Andy’s father stating that he’s purchased the buildings on the wharf and will be raising the rent. Christina and the other shopkeepers decide to band together to change Oscar’s mind. Only if she successfully challenges Oscar will Christina ever feel secure in a relationship with his son. As usual, Thayer’s novel is so full of details about life on Nantucket that the island becomes its own character. Several moments are so sweet they’ll make your teeth hurt, but the holiday feasts, caroling, and general Christmas spirit help the novel fall squarely within its genre of satisfying Christmas romances. Told in a plot-focused, accessible prose, the book maintains its lighthearted tone throughout, never delving too deeply into Christina’s feelings toward her own family, her friendships with the other shopkeepers, or the classist attitudes of her friends.
A wholesome Christmas tale full of adorable characters and unexpected kindnesses.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9868-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious...
Beautiful Italian babe with a passion for fire and doomed hunks joins the arson squad and discovers that someone has held a torch for her since she was a child.
When Reena Hale is 11 years old, she watches her family's Baltimore pizzeria go up in flames. Thanks to a local arson detective, John Minger, and the girl's keen memory, police determine that a neighborhood crook whose young son had recently attacked Reena was out for revenge, and soon cops publicly haul the dirt bag off to jail. The large and loving Hale family bands together and rebuilds; Reena grows up curious about the origins of fire. She attends college and, after her boyfriend dies in an accident, joins the police force and learns the inner workings of the fire department. Eventually, she teams with Minger to solve the city's suspicious fires. Meanwhile, over the years, a shady character has been hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to violently sabotage Reena's relationships (usually with the help of explosives). Somehow Reena doesn't put together that all of her boyfriends have been in the path of catastrophic (occasionally deadly) events, so her stalker hits the phone lines to clue her in with dirty messages that become more and more intimate. When Reena launches a torrid love affair with her new neighbor, whose truck soon explodes, she begins to get it. Fearing for her family's safety, Reena reopens past cases and learns that her troubles started when she was a child. The tale builds to a breathless climax as she (literally) races to beat out the flames of one fire before determining where the next one will be set.
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious nature.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-15306-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
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