A light and fluffy confection that’s a perfect read for a holiday break.
Passey’s (The Tree Keeper’s Promise, 2016, etc.) latest Christmas tale is a lighthearted romance inspired by Charles Dickens’ classic holiday novel.
Eleanor Fooge is running her grandmother’s fudge business in Pine Creek, Colorado, and it’s not going well. The company is losing money, and Eleanor’s control issues have alienated her business partner. When Eleanor’s angry opinions about charity go viral, the business’s reputation suffers. She’s seen as a classic Scrooge despite her strong aversion to her name’s being compared to Dickens’ famous literary character’s. Enter Cam Wilson, a consultant whom Eleanor brought in to help save the business. He had a crush on her back in high school, years ago, and he’s retained his youthful good looks and charming personality—and Eleanor takes notice. He’s also smart enough to recognize that although Eleanor can effectively make the hard decisions required to save the company, her temperament is unpredictable. She also treats her employees terribly, going so far as to force them to work on Christmas. In addition, her hatred of all things Scrooge causes her to pass up good business opportunities, such as selling fudge at a local theater company’s sold-out performances of A Christmas Carol. She just wants to save the business before her grandmother finds out about the trouble. Cam wants to do his job, but he also finds himself falling for Eleanor all over again. Passey’s spin on the Dickens tale is as sweet as the fudge that Eleanor dishes up throughout the novel. Eleanor’s transformation is expected but enjoyable, and Passey makes a good observation about Scrooge himself: “he’s generous and kindhearted by the end. But no one…wants to give him that credit. Once a miser, always a miser.” The author’s prose flows nicely, and the chemistry between Cam and Eleanor is a consistent treat. There are no steamy love scenes along the way, but Cam’s willingness to lay everything on the line for Eleanor is a Christmas gift that romance fans will want to unwrap.
A light and fluffy confection that’s a perfect read for a holiday break.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9909840-8-5
Page Count: 195
Publisher: Winter Street Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose...
Sparks (The Longest Ride, 2013, etc.) serves up another heaping helping of sentimental Southern bodice-rippage.
Gone are the blondes of yore, but otherwise the Sparks-ian formula is the same: a decent fellow from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches falls in love with a decent girl from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches—and is still suffering the consequences. The guy is innately intelligent but too quick to throw a punch, the girl beautiful and scary smart. If you hold a fatalistic worldview, then you’ll know that a love between them can end only in tears. If you hold a Sparks-ian one, then true love will prevail, though not without a fight. Voilà: plug in the character names, and off the story goes. In this case, Colin Hancock is the misunderstood lad who’s decided to reform his hard-knuckle ways but just can’t keep himself from connecting fist to face from time to time. Maria Sanchez is the dedicated lawyer in harm’s way—and not just because her boss is a masher. Simple enough. All Colin has to do is punch the partner’s lights out: “The sexual harassment was bad enough, but Ken was a bully as well, and Colin knew from his own experience that people like that didn’t stop abusing their power unless someone made them. Or put the fear of God into them.” No? No, because bound up in Maria’s story, wrinkled with the doings of an equally comely sister, there’s a stalker and a closet full of skeletons. Add Colin’s back story, and there’s a perfect couple in need of constant therapy, as well as a menacing cop. Get Colin and Maria to smooching, and the plot thickens as the storylines entangle. Forget about love—can they survive the evil that awaits them out in the kudzu-choked woods?
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose corn syrup, stickily sweet but irresistible.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4555-2061-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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