A poignant and chilling drama with intriguing twists.
In Martinez’s New Orleans-set historical novel, secret lineages lead to heartbreak and new beginnings.
It is New Year’s Eve 1834, and Madame Desiree Marie de Valcourt regrets that she has agreed to attend her friend’s elaborate celebration. Her husband died several years ago, but given how controlling and cruel he was, it was not a great loss. With his death, she reclaimed her wealth and sense of self, but now the young widow is desolate; just recently, cholera claimed the life of her young daughter. Now, Desiree has no interest in social interaction. She leaves the party before midnight. Arriving at her front gate, she sees a basket tucked into the foliage—inside is a beautiful 1-year-old baby. There is no message or identification. Desiree vows to raise the infant on her own. She has the child christened Colette Francoise de Valcourt, and the following years are filled with joy as Colette grows into a beautiful, refined, and educated young woman. The only wrinkle in Colette’s perfect life is that she knows nothing about her biological lineage, and she is aware of the whispers behind her back. Still, after her spectacular gala debut, she is surrounded by many eager, eligible suitors. One captures her heart: the charming, mysterious, wealthy heir of the Crescent Plantation, Armand Baptiste Quevillon (“His mysterious aura and sophisticated demeanor intrigued her like a puzzle waiting to be solved”). After Colette moves to the plantation, readers meet the magnetic Rene Crozat, a biracial freed enslaved person and veterinarian, whom Armand has banned from the property; Rene’s backstory adds an extra dimension to what becomes a classic good vs. evil morality play. The author deftly employs character development and narrative complexity to produce a sturdy indictment of the era’s institutionalized subjugation of women and bestial treatment of Black people. Though the elaborate descriptions of fashion and decor are occasionally too effusive, and the treatment of suffocating behavioral restrictions a bit overwrought, Martinez’s simply composed prose bursts with vibrant colors, and he vividly captures the ethnically diverse and exotic atmospherics of New Orleans.
A poignant and chilling drama with intriguing twists.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2025
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
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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