Reviews for Flirting with Pete [sound recording]
Library Journal
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Casey's remote psychologist father has willed her his Beacon Hill house-and with it a case study that will change her life. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
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Narrator Emond effectively performs two intertwining stories in Delinsky's latest. The product of a one-night stand, Casey Ellis has followed her father's career as an acclaimed psychologist from afar, although he has never acknowledged Casey as his daughter. When he dies and leaves his townhouse to Casey, she is stunned. Exploring the rooms, she finds a manuscript about a troubled teen named Jenny, who was physically abused by her mother and sexually abused by her father. The father served a six-year term in prison for murdering the mother, and as the manuscript begins, is about to be released from prison. The terrified Jenny looks to escape with a mysterious stranger named Pete. While Casey looks for clues to Jenny's identity and fate, and how it all ties in with her father, she simultaneously finds romance with Jordan, a gardener who turns out to be an undercover detective also tied in with Jenny. Emond reads in a warm, sympathetic tone, best at voicing Jenny, the vulnerable, anxious teenager. She does not create distinctive character voices, but she does deepen her voice slightly for the male characters and, during conversations, alters her voice enough to alert listeners to which character is speaking. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, May 5). (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Casey Ellis has spent her life longing for the father she never knew. Jenny Clyde has spent hers loathing the father she knew all too well. Casey's father is a noteworthy psychologist named Cornelius Unger; Jenny's is a notorious prisoner, Darden Clyde. When Unger dies, he bequeaths Casey more than just his luxurious Beacon Hill townhouse; she also inherits his cook, gardener, and random segments of Jenny's disturbing diary, a bewildering chronicle written prior to Jenny's mysterious disappearance in the company of a shadowy young man known only as Pete. Darden is about to be released from prison for the murder of Jenny's mother, and his imminent arrival permeates Jenny's abject account of her life spent in fear of his psychological and sexual abuse. Hoping to solve the puzzling connection between this tortured young woman and her enigmatic father, Casey follows the journal's tantalizing clues in search of not only Jenny's identity and whereabouts but also her own familial relationships. Fantasy battles reality in Delinsky's emotive novel of discovery and denial, love and liberation. Seamlessly and compassionately weaving Jenny's unsettling past with Casey's uncertain future, Delinsky delivers a scintillating study of each woman's search for answers and absolution. --Carol Haggas
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Therapist Casey Ellis knew she was a product of a one-night stand between her mother (now comatose) and her renowned psychologist father. But she never met him, and he never acknowledged her until after his death, when he left her his mortgage-free townhouse in Boston's upscale Beacon Hill. Casey has every intention of selling it and reaping a sizable nest egg, but circumstances cause her to linger. When she discovers writings about a young woman named Jenny Clyde among her father's belongings, she is determined to find out more about Jenny and to understand the father she never knew. This is another "I didn't want to put it down" novel from Delinsky, a popular author of contemporary romantic fiction (An Accidental Woman). Highly recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/03.]-Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Cassandra (Casey) Ellis, 34, a single, successful psychotherapist, is the newest of this prolific romance writer's heroines. The novel opens with a memorial service for Dr. Cornelius Unger, a brilliant and reclusive psychologist who is also Casey's father. She never knew him personally, since she was the product of her mother's single encounter with Unger, and is shocked to learn that Dr. Unger has left her a $3 million townhouse on Boston's Beacon Hill, complete with a maid, Meg, and a gardener, Jordan. Casey has always felt hostile toward her famous, mysterious father, even though her mother never expressed any anger. She's uneasy at first about living in a luxurious house haunted by her father's presence, but soon finds its meticulously attended gardens a source of relief from professional stress and the emotional turmoil of caring for her mother, left comatose after a recent accident. Moreover, she is attracted to handsome, virile Jordan. While she's rooting through Dr. Unger's personal papers, she comes across the story of Jenny Clyde, a young woman in her 20s who was abused by her father for years before being rescued by a police officer. Casey becomes intrigued: is this incestuous relationship fiction or one of Dr. Unger's case histories? Why did her father leave it for her to find? Delinsky (The Woman Next Door, etc.) weaves Jenny's story through the novel, and meshes her and Casey's fates in a melodramatic climax. Both stories have some lapses in credibility and underdeveloped supporting characters (Meg is particularly weak), but the plot is more sophisticated and fast-moving than some of Delinsky's earlier work. It will satisfy her fans and may even win her some new readers. Agent, Amy Berkower. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
