An involving tale that balances struggle, love, and hope.
The first novel in McBride’s series explores second chances during Covid-19.
Katie Young, an IT systems director who’s nearly 50, feels adrift as a new empty nester in her small town near Occoquan, Virginia. It’s the early 2020s, and Covid, quarantines, office shutdowns, and furloughs are everywhere. Her daughter, Belle, heads to college, and Katie lands a new job in Miami. A lifelong boater, she meets James Conway “JC” Bland III at a Miami marina; a whirlwind romance leads to a quick marriage proposal. Despite nagging doubts, she says yes. JC’s yacht becomes a metaphor for their damaged marriage. (“She saw the imperfections first. The crazing in the porthole glass, faded curtains, a water stain in the ceiling.”) The newlyweds sail to Key West, snorkel at Dry Tortugas National Park, and party with new friends and fellow boaters, including Rhiannon and her husband, Corde. McBride ably limns the women as they develop their friendship, sharing confidences and “quarantinis” at bonfires with the other “Beach Bonfire Babes.” Life shifts abruptly, however, when Katie’s mother contracts Covid and dies. Katie moves into Bonnie Brae, her childhood Virginia home, to settle the estate. We learn more about Bonnie Brae, a “red-roofed Cape Cod” that abuts the Potomac River (“The shoreline was right on a protected bay across from a national wildlife refuge”). She finds strength to assess her new marriage and to plan her future with help from friends and Deke, who works for the Potomac Science Center and shares many common interests with Katie. McBride adeptly intertwines the lives of Katie and Rhiannon, and themes of love, family, loss, and betrayal emerge. The author sets a vivid scene (“The sun was just rising in the east, and a white layer of fog rose from the surface of the water as if the river was lifting its bedtime blanket”), and her storytelling consistently engages.
An involving tale that balances struggle, love, and hope.Pub Date: April 12, 2024
ISBN: 9798990295803
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Make Waves Press
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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