Another charming modern romance featuring the usual Krentz ingredients: a Big Biz hero, an artsy heroine and a pile of New Age cosmobabble. Alexa Chambers, a world-class Art Deco consultant, lives in the picturesque desert town of Avalon, Ariz. (a Sedona look-alike), and runs a kitschy museum-replica store called Elegant Relic. Alexa has been relegated to hawking gargoyles after her reputation was devastated by an art-fake scandal two years earlier. Now, she’s pinning hopes for her “triumphant return” to the art world on the secret consulting work she’s done for the new Avalon Resort & Spa, an Art Deco fantasy hotel for which she has assembled a museum-caliber collection. The owner of the new resort, John Laird Trask, is returning to Avalon both to open his hotel and to investigate the death of his father, whose car went over Avalon Point 12 years before. In typical Krentzian fashion, Trask (called simply —Trask—) is a self-made tycoon who has single-handedly built an empire and brought up a younger brother but is a bust in the male-female relationship department. He remembers Alexa because she’s cute and the stepdaughter of the man Trask believes killed his dad. Luckily for Trask, the same lunatic responsible for his father’s death is still in Avalon, where he has appointed himself guardian of the Dimensions Institute, a New Age haven that until Trask’s arrival was Avalon’s chief employer and visitor attraction. In his zeal to keep all the energy “vortices” balanced and positive, the Guardian embarks on a new series of murders and begins to threaten Alexa. As they follow clues to the crazy killer’s identity, Alexa and Trask experience two nights of mad passion that turn their individual unbalanced vortices into a perfectly wired whole. The mystery’s dorky, but Krentz again assembles an easy-to-like community of people.
Pub Date: May 11, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-52306-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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