Latest news with #CoralieBower
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Consider Yourself Kissed' nails the complex emotions of motherhood
It's a made-for-the-movies beginning. On a sunny day in 2013 in London's Victoria Park, a British man's young daughter jumps into a pond to see the ducks up close and ends up face down in the water instead. While he's got his back turned, she has stopped moving, her coat floating around her. Who should notice but Coralie Bower, an attractive, single 29-year-old, recently moved to Britain from Australia. She jumps in and saves the girl without hesitation. Then she slips away, forcing the girl's father to search every cafe in the area so that he can show his gratitude. Think of chasing Cinderella but replace the glass slipper with a latte.
Wall Street Journal
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Consider Yourself Kissed' Review: Jumping Right In
Coralie Bower and Adam Whiteman meet kind-of cute a few pages into Jessica Stanley's winning second novel, 'Consider Yourself Kissed': Coralie jumps into a pond to save Adam's precocious 4-year-old daughter from drowning. That's a pretty clear signal they're meant for each other. If more signals are required here they are: Adam, a journalist, is clever and witty, and Coralie, an advertising copywriter, ably matches him quip for quip. Adam, a divorcé, says that he looks like Colin Firth, albeit shorter and younger. Meanwhile, Coralie, who is a few years removed from a bad break-up, allows that she looks like Elizabeth Bennet, or so her classmates had often told her. Readers who don't quickly key into the 'Pride and Prejudice' reference—Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' is invoked here as well—may want to consider different reading matter. Coralie is an easy mark for Adam's warmth and charm. She recently moved to London from her native Australia to get away from an assortment of bad situations and bad memories, is getting nowhere on her long-aborning writing project, and is thus feeling unmoored. For the record, their courtship is a delight to behold. But when, very quickly, they move in together, things get messy. Then again, life is messy. 'Consider Yourself Kissed' (the title is a reference to the sign-off of a character in Mary McCarthy's 'The Group') details the 10-year period between 2012 and 2022. It's a turbulent decade for Britain—many arrivals and swift departures at 10 Downing Street; Brexit; the pandemic.
