Resolution

Suspension of disbelief is needed to get through Cooper’s third and final Swept Away contemporary (after Disillusioned), but it’s impossible to achieve as series protagonists Bianca and Jakob get their happy ending, their dead parents’ mysteries play out, and the villains’ animosity is revealed. Pressing questions—who dies in the prologue? Is Jakob’s father still alive?—are answered very slowly, punctuated by ominous fortune cookie–esque pronouncements such as “in life there is death and in death there is life.” If Cooper intended to build dramatic impact, she failed; the book simply plods along. It’s hard enough to accept the premise of a woman falling in love with her kidnapper and trusting him implicitly, and the unbelievable dialogue and unlikely sex scenes send things right over the top. Agent: Rebecca Friedman, Rebecca Friedman Literary Agency. (Dec.)