First Light

September 19, 2016
Rancic, a winner of The Apprentice and bestselling author of motivational business books (You’re Hired), fails to transfer his charisma to fiction with a standard-issue disaster story. A plane crashes in Alaska, trapping a team of coworkers at an oil company. Crisis manager Daniel Albrecht treks from the site of the crash to find help for the survivors, including his injured, pregnant fiancée, Kerry Egan, leaving her in the care of his coworker Phil Velez and a kind and competent nurse. Paul opens up to Kerry about his grief over the death of his wife, but he keeps his crush on Kerry to himself. Awkward framing, in which the story is told via the memory of two survivors, is designed to tease but not telegraph the book’s secret plot twist, but it’s too transparent and makes the narrative portions told from other characters’ perspective confusing. Rancic’s dialogue-heavy prose feels right for a TV or movie script, but the characters’ feelings of fear and grief are underexplored. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

October 15, 2016
Entrepreneur and reality-TV star Rancic, author of the best-selling You're Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life (2004), presents a captivating and harrowing debut novel. After doing damage control for a recent oil spill, the Petrol team members are more than ready to leave the darkness of Barrow, Alaska. Kerry Egan and Daniel Albrecht are especially excited to return to Chicago to plan their wedding and celebrate the holidays. But during their flight home, something goes terribly wrong. Stranded in the Yukon Territory after their plane crashes during a storm, Kerry, Daniel, and other survivors must endure the unforgiving conditions of the Canadian wilderness. Kerry and Phil Velez, another Petrol employee, are gravely injured during the crash. As the only one with survival experience, Daniel is forced to make difficult decisions to save the woman he loves and ensure that everyone has a chance of being rescued. First Light is, at its core, a story of love and family, told within an engrossing page-turner about endurance and hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)