Room Service

June 15, 2018
A savvy New Yorker takes a chance on a long-distance romance.Cameron Singleton has a few simple rules: Always use protection, never promise a woman anything you're not willing to deliver, and move on quickly as soon as a female companion mentions the M word. With these in place, the investment banker has managed to remain New Orleans' most eligible white bachelor well into his 40s. But from the moment he sets eyes on lovely Jasmine Washington, who's in town from the Big Apple to attend Hannah DuPont-Lowell's wedding to St. John McNair (The Inheritance, 2017), something feels different. Whether it's Jasmine's unusual looks (she's the daughter of an African-American dad and a Filipina mom) or her cool self-confidence, Cam feels he simply must get to know the interior designer-turned-human resources specialist. Fortunately, he's due in New York for his college fraternity's annual reunion. And his timing couldn't be better. A merger at Jasmine's firm, Wakefield-Hamilton, led to mass layoffs, and her temporary stint at a social service agency has just ended, so she's got plenty of time to join Cameron for dinner at Cipriani Club 55. When Cameron tempts her with the chance to be his plus-one at his fraternity's formal dinner, she ups the ante, telling him she'll accompany him on the glitzy dinner cruise if he spends the day at her aunt and uncle's bed-and-breakfast on Long Island. Although her disastrous marriage left her determined to spend the rest of her days happily single, independent-minded Jasmine is intrigued by Cameron, too. Besides, how much can a relationship cramp Jasmine's style if her significant other lives nearly 1,200 miles away?Alers has the opportunity to stray off the beaten path exploring romance between folks who are not kids anymore and who have some intriguing baggage, but she's just too intent on getting to the finish line to let these complications mature.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 25, 2018
The disappointing third in Alers’s Innkeepers contemporary series (after Breakfast in Bed) catches up with former Wall Street HR specialist Jasmine Washington just as she’s winding down a six-month gig working for a nonprofit. She’s reluctant to move away from her aging parents, but after a dinner date with New Orleans investment banker Cameron Singleton, she decides to take up her friend Hannah on the offer of a job in New Orleans. Soon Jasmine’s beauty has Cameron rethinking his commitment to confirmed bachelorhood. There’s lots to like about these two and their friends, families, and stories, but this entry is the weakest in the series so far. Alers seldom flunks chemistry, but despite everything Jazz and Cameron have going for them—good looks, brains, money, style—they lack the vital spark that romance readers hope for. Series fans will hope the next installment turns things around. Agent: Nancy Coffey, Nancy Coffey Literary & Media.

July 1, 2018
Cameron Sinclair, one of New Orleans' most eligible white bachelors, was smitten when he met Jasmine Washington, who is Asian and African American, at a Big Easy wedding in Alers' Inheritance (2017), but the dazzling decorator turned human-resources professional lives halfway across the country. Several months later, Cameron is scheduled to attend a reunion in New York, and it seems like the perfect time to renew their acquaintance. After her disastrous marriage to a seemingly perfect man who, instead, destroyed her business and wrecked her chance at motherhood, Jasmine is not looking for a committed relationship, but things don't always happen the way one plans. Then her parents' decision to move out of New York leads Jasmine to reconsider moving to New Orleans, and that means she'll be seeing a lot more of Cameron. Recommend to readers who love second-chance romances and series featuring groups of friends; the more mature characters bring to mind Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)