Enchanting, though the desire for an enthralling tale might not be fulfilled.
Be careful what you wish for: For good or ill, magic comets fulfill the wishes of three women.
Restless, unhappy and full of desire, three very different women look up to the night sky and each make a wish on their own passing comet. Grace, jealous of her best friend’s charmed life, is granted the power to make men fall in love with her; Skylar, embarrassed of being poor, is given the power to bring money and success into her life; and Alina, haunted by her sister’s death, is bestowed the revenge-based power to undo the lives of others. For a short time, these newfound powers fulfill the women’s desires. Grace meets a wonderful man who dotes on her and buys her anything she desires. Skylar also meets a man, who promises to take care of her. And Alina, once Skylar’s high school friend, is put in the perfect place to get revenge on the friend that abandoned her. Hook impressively handles her three main characters, making each feel distinct and equally important. Grace’s, Skylar’s and Alina’s lives intersect at different points in the novel in a multitude of different ways. Grace falls for Liam, who has been in love with Skylar since high school, although he’s used Alina to fulfill his own needs; Alina crosses paths with Johnny, Skylar’s high school flame, who may just have his own comet-given powers; and Skylar befriends Grace, who happened to once work for the love of Skylar’s life, Darren. Despite a promising premise, Hook’s narrative is somewhat aimless and underdeveloped. There are lovely moments when Hook reaches for deeper meanings, as when Grace realizes the interconnectedness of everything, or in Alina’s struggle to free herself from Johnny. But all too often, Hook’s narrative revolves merely around how these women define themselves in relation to the men in their lives. Nonetheless, the scene of Grace’s wedding highlights the novel, as does the comets’ return.
Enchanting, though the desire for an enthralling tale might not be fulfilled.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470113216
Page Count: 336
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2013
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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