Florida’s humorist laureate finds chaos and comedy in the Everglades.
Gold bars, pythons, and TikTok videos of swamp monsters add up to a hilarious Florida tale.
Jesse Braddock has a spectacularly handsome boyfriend and a darling baby girl, but she’s not feeling the happily-ever-after. Slater may look like “classic Tom Cruise,” but he’s a philanderer who’s spent most of Jesse’s trust fund, and now they’re living in a broken-down cabin in the Everglades with Slater’s videographer pal, Kark, “and ninety trillion mosquitoes. And no money.” Slater and Kark’s highest ambition is to sell a reality TV show called Glades Man, which would feature Slater taking his shirt off among the palmettos. After a close encounter with a python, Jesse is developing an ambition to take baby Willa and flee, but how? Nearby, Ken and Brad Bortle, proprietors of the failing Bortle Brothers Bait & Beer, are cooking up a get-rich scheme of their own (well, Ken’s). After seeing a viral video of Phil Teagler, an alcoholic former newspaper reporter, attempting to play a costumed character at a rich little girl’s birthday party, with dire but hilarious results, Ken has the idea of making a video of Phil playing a cryptid, which they dub the Everglades Melon Monster for its giant head (from a repurposed Dora the Explorer costume). Once that hits the sound and fury of TikTok, they’ll sell a ton of Melon Monster merch. When Ken, Kark, and Slater meet, they quickly realize they can join forces: Glades Man vs. Melon Monster. Meanwhile, Jesse has literally stumbled upon a legendary cache of Civil War–era gold bars buried in the Glades long ago. She has also run afoul of the Campbell brothers, Duck and Billy, a couple of ex-cons who, despite their childish nicknames, are mean as snakes but not as smart. In desperate need of help and a ride to Miami to consult a lawyer, she joins forces with Brad. All of those plot threads will get further entangled with Eastern European mobsters, the secretary of the interior, and a python hunter with an “emotional support boar,” among other things. Barry makes mirth of all this mayhem with his usual aplomb.
Florida’s humorist laureate finds chaos and comedy in the Everglades.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781982191337
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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