Mounting Desire by Nina Killham

From the Publisher

The author of How to Cook a Tart turns her wickedly incisive eye to the only subject that Americans are more obsessed with than food: sex.

Jack Carter, born-again virgin and bestselling romance author, has a problem, and her name is Molly. Foisted upon him by his sister, Molly has just been fired from her high-paying management position for sexually harassing her male assistant. She's also been evicted from her apartment, and has landed-for just a few weeks, she promises-in Jack's Los Angeles town house. Worse yet, she decides to take advantage of her new environment and try her hand at writing romances herself, using the pseudonym Molly Desire. Molly's novel is racy and explicit, and blows the covers off Jack's tender and traditional plots and relationships. Just how far will their professional (and personal) competition go? Add to the mix a sister who thinks she's not getting enough, a niece who's about to get too much, and a mother who is in danger of being kicked out of her retirement home for inappropriate behavior, and you get Nina Killham's trademark wit and insight into the battle of the sexes.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

There is of course, amid all the laughter, a serious point here. Sex indeed is too much with us, in too public and too cynically commercial ways, and a bit of toning down indeed is in order. Swearing off it completely may not be the answer, but in an age where it all hangs out, a little reticence would be nice. Killham makes the point deftly in this very funny, very clever, very adult novel.

Publishers Weekly

Killham's rollicking second novel (after How To Cook a Tart) cleverly sends up the romance genre while standing as a funny, romantic novel in its own right. Jack Carter, nom de plume Celeste d'Arcy, is a successful romance writer living in Venice Beach, almost as irresistible to women as one of his throbbing heroes. But after a failed marriage and too much casual sex, lonely Jack is now a "born again virgin" waiting for his true love. Enter Molly, a formerly successful businesswoman fired for sleeping with her hunky but incompetent assistant. As a favor to his sister, who's Molly's friend, Jack allows the suddenly broke and homeless Molly to move in with him. Soon, Molly is authoring her own romances, ones featuring more handcuffs than petticoats. While Jack suffers writer's block, promotes abstinence among his friends and dates controlling, chaste Heather, Molly publishes popular novels, gets knocked up and grows beautiful in Jack's eyes. Killham aims for a witty gender role reversal with these two characters-Jack is romantic, finicky and worried while Molly behaves more like a hormonally charged teenage boy than a liberated woman-but the author often sacrifices the characters' credibility for cleverness. Nonetheless, readers will still wish the best for these unlikely lovers in this fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable read. Agent, Isobel Dixon. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A second outing by Killham (How to Cook a Tart, 2002) alternately spoofs and succumbs to the conventions of genre romance. Jack Carter, aka Celeste d'Arcy, is at the top of his game as a romance author. His Regency characters, Primrose and Guy, lounge around inspiring him with what will prove to be this novel's wittiest repartee. (Although the setting is Venice Beach, Calif., and the characters are American, the dialogue is pure cheeky Brit-speak.) Recently, after too many encounters with women who only want one thing, Jack has decided to become a "born-again virgin" and save himself for true love. Meanwhile, his sister Kate tries seaweed, exorcism, feng shui, testosterone patches, anything to recharge her flagging libido, but her husband's girth keeps dampening her ardor. Their teenage daughter Leda is experimenting with hooking up and directing Internet porn videos. Kate sends her newly destitute and recently evicted friend Molly to stay with Jack-Molly is unemployed as a result of a sexual harassment scandal (she's the perp). Jack's elderly mother Rita, meanwhile, is a sexual harasser-wannabe deterred only by the male-female ratio (1-10) at her retirement community. While Jack labors to cement a rules-driven abstinent relationship with blonde ice-queen Heather, he finds himself inexorably drawn to lush brunette Molly, who's the ideal combination of randy but well-intentioned. But she hesitates to exploit Jack's suppressed longings-except as a conduit to his editor. Soon, as Molly Desire, she's outstripping him career-wise, penning romance spiced with S&M and erotica, while Primrose and Guy are locked out by their author's sudden creativity deficit. Molly gets pregnant by one of herinterchangeable lovers, possibly the Fabio clone who models during Jack's bookstore appearances, while, in another trite twist, Mom proves too sexy for the nursing home. Obstacles to achieving the coy title's intent, uh, snowball. In a Valentine's Day ensemble set-piece worthy of a bad sitcom pilot, the scattershot plot unravels, and abrupt reversals and convenient changes of heart dictate the predictable denouement. Romance interruptus.

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