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ILLICIT

Lots of hot, sexually edgy content and the promise of a romantic happily-ever-after may satisfy some readers in the intended...

Lindsay is invited to experience a weekend of sexual fantasy.

Weeks after Lindsay tells her best friend about the three sexy men she saw and fantasized about—in spine-tingling, toe-curling detail—in an elevator, she receives an invitation to experience a weekend of pure, sensual pleasure, including directions and a keycard. Convinced it’s a joke Jill is playing on her to lure her to a girls’ weekend, Lindsay shows up at the appointed time and place and is shocked to discover the three men from the elevator, who are interested in satisfying her every whim for 48 hours. At first uncertain, Lindsay is convinced by Erik—the most compelling of the three—to try, and she experiences pleasure like she’s never known. But Lindsay’s feelings for all three men—Erik, Connor and Travis, who share an apartment, strong, committed relationships and bisexual tendencies—grow remarkably strong in so short a time, and she’s devastated when Erik tells her one weekend is all there is. Connor and Travis know Erik likes Lindsay, but all three men are wary of throwing their unorthodox relationship off balance. Not for the faint of heart, this book has numerous graphic sexual scenes, and with three men and one woman, you would guess correctly that not all of the scenes are heterosexual. Carew is known for adding a compelling emotional dimension to erotica, and while there are hints of such factors in the story—a subtle psychic aspect to the plot, for instance, as well as the complicated relationship among the three men—they are never fleshed out fully or developed in a gripping way that truly enhances the plot.  And Lindsay, who believes an invitation to sexual fantasy is a joke set up by her best friend but never confirms the theory before she shows up, leaves us suspicious of her intelligence and common sense from the get-go.

Lots of hot, sexually edgy content and the promise of a romantic happily-ever-after may satisfy some readers in the intended erotic-romance audience.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-312-67462-5

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013

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IT ENDS WITH US

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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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

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BLUE SMOKE

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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