For readers who can swallow their repulsion at the idea of incest, this is a romantic, thoughtful read that could make them...
First-time author Schonbeck offers a romance tale based around a great taboo.
Shortly into the book, Schonbeck delivers a shock to her readers—protagonist Rose is in love with her brother Robert, and her feelings are not unrequited. There’s nothing to mitigate the situation—they are not long-lost siblings, nor were they separated at birth, distant in age or raised thousands of miles apart. They are a brother and a sister as most readers understand those terms, and they are in love. While the author smartly takes care to keep intimate scenes from becoming graphic, interspersing other scenes with the love scenes between Rose and Robert, which keeps sensitive readers from rejecting the book outright based on its controversial subject matter, she does not shy away from much in her handling of this incestuous relationship. Rose wants to be with her brother, and she’s willing to pay whatever the price might be. Robert, on the other hand, thinks that their attraction, and any relationship stemming from it, is wrong and he resists pursuing it. His resistance, however, does not stop him from having several passionate nights with Rose. As the story progresses, Rose and Robert, who are both lawyers, find themselves on opposite sides of a dangerous drug-trafficking case. Schonbeck expertly builds the narrative’s tension, between the siblings and in the case, and Rose and Robert’s precarious situation becomes increasingly dangerous. Despite being involved in such a culturally inappropriate romance, these are believable characters who have friends, try to date other people, enjoy their work and relate to their family. In this sense, the author grounds the novel in realism rather than relying on the shock value of incest to keep the pages turning. Schonbeck writes the romance well while also building and holding a dramatic tension that must, and does, eventually break in the only way that it could.
For readers who can swallow their repulsion at the idea of incest, this is a romantic, thoughtful read that could make them reconsider the meaning of love.Pub Date: July 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-1452839622
Page Count: 437
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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