A sweet, sexy read with complicated, likable leads, a swoonworthy seaside setting, and a positive message about...
This enemies-to-lovers romance follows the relationship of an eager-to-please author and her artist neighbor in Bodega Bay, California.
Millie Hart, 33, is a New York Times–bestselling author—of romance, much to the chagrin of her estranged father, a bookseller. To satisfy him once and for all, she vows to write the next big literary classic and rents a coastal cottage for three months, accompanied only by her cat, Pop-Tart. Almost immediately, Millie finds herself in a battle of wits, and very loud music, with her handsome but irritating neighbor. Drake Branch uprooted his life—from city to hometown—after a motorcycle accident left him with only one arm. Despite a successful glass-blowing career and a cadre of supportive family and friends, Drake’s nightmares and triggering flashbacks persist. The arrival of an attractive, but stubborn, new neighbor doesn’t help his anxiety level. Though Millie finds herself stuck writing the kind of novel that’s serious but gloomy, a far cry from her usual happily-ever-afters, she quickly adapts to small-town life and its quirky cast. Thanks to the encouragement of Drake’s colleagues and his aunt Nikki, who owns the town’s romance bookstore, he starts to reconsider his neighbor, who shares his hatred of wearing headphones. Millie and Drake get cozy over a night of pizza, wine, and glass blowing, but when Millie’s father reappears in her life and the ghosts of Drake’s past return with a vengeance, will their love survive? Ewens (Tap, 2018, etc.) is a skilled storyteller, writing from both Millie’s and Drake’s perspectives and giving each distinctive personalities and struggles. Every character—Drake’s mentor, Esteban; Esteban’s college-bound daughter, Hazel; Millie’s best friend and literary agent, Jade—is thoughtfully imagined. Though the title is a bit misleading, as “blow” is also slang for cocaine, the chemistry is palpable, the plot points clear, and the subplot regarding the stigma against romance fiction and authors incredibly accurate.
A sweet, sexy read with complicated, likable leads, a swoonworthy seaside setting, and a positive message about relationships.Pub Date: June 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73232-163-2
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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