Inflated histrionics that are about as appealing as the navel-gazing that punctuates them.
Major melodrama ensues when Willa returns to her childhood home after an absence of six years to live with her nonna, cook and housekeeper for the wealthy Lawtons, and reconnects with childhood friends.
Living in a small cottage on their estate, Willa spent her childhood here, inseparable with the second son, Gunner Lawton, and his best friend, Brady Higgens. Now seniors, the three revive their friendship in what appears to be a love triangle. Gunner’s distant relationship with his unloving parents and Willa’s abandonment by her own mother draws them close, as revealed in ponderously voiced first-person chapters that alternate among the three beautiful, white teens. While away, Willa did something she regrets that resulted in a short stint in a correctional center, and this secret flavors the beginning of what turns out to be a chain of revelations of dark secrets that surround the Lawtons. Though rife with swearing, including the liberal use of F-bombs, and references to sex, the actual events on the page are relatively tame. Furthermore, although explosive secrets that will prove powerful and damaging emerge, the way it all plays out is not particularly heart-wrenching. Willa is a good Southern girl who says “Yes, ma’am,” and all her actions are pure in motivation. Several plot threads dangle toward the end, but those who like soap operas won’t notice or care.
Inflated histrionics that are about as appealing as the navel-gazing that punctuates them. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3889-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rewarding, passionate, and beautifully characterized duology closer.
The love between two of Saverio’s heroes is put to the ultimate test in Thiede’s exhilarating follow-up to This Vicious Grace (2022).
After defeating Crollo’s most recent Divorando, Finestra Alessa and Dante, her bodyguard-turned-lover whom she resurrected, look forward to moving on with their lives. But their battle with the scarabei—and Dante’s return to the living afterward—came with a price: Dante has become fully mortal, having lost his healing powers as a ghiotte, and Alessa has harnessed a harrowing ability to enter people’s minds. With the couple’s happily-ever-after remaining out of reach, Alessa’s nightmares and Dante’s troubling visions from Dea manifest when a friend, momentarily possessed, delivers an ominous message from the gods about another war to come. Dante; Alessa; Alessa’s twin brother, Adrick; and the team of Fonti who protected Saverio from the Divorando embark on a journey to find the other ghiotte—hiding in exile after centuries of persecution—and enlist their help to stop an even greater attack from Crollo during the next eclipse. Readers will fall deeper in love with Dante and Alessa, whose individual explorations of identity and self-love amid impending chaos are heart-wrenchingly honest. But it’s the portrayal of their growth as a pair—in a relationship that’s filled with endless flirty banter, mutual understanding, and acceptance of each other’s flaws—that is especially satisfying and wholesome. Characters vary in skin tone; there’s natural representation of queerness and disability.
A rewarding, passionate, and beautifully characterized duology closer. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781250794079
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A promising premise subverted by the execution.
A restless AcroYoga influencer pursues love and money on reality TV.
Twenty-three-year-old Orielle Lennox’s post-college life has stalled out. Unhappy in a lackluster relationship and fueled by her older sister’s criticisms that she’s passive and codependent, Orie tries to jump-start her future by answering a casting call for the reality TV show Survivor. Discovering her father’s gambling problem and being dumped by her boyfriend shortly before leaving for Fiji to film make Orie all the more eager to dive headlong into the competition as an escape from her problems. Upon arrival, Orie (who’s cued white) and the nine other contestants—a racially diverse group of young, fit older teens and 20-somethings—find out that they’re actually on a new reality spinoff called Attached at the Hip. Furthermore, each participant has been carefully selected as a possible love or friendship match for several other competitors. Orie quickly allies with Remy, an Italian American gym bro who also happens to be her unrequited high school crush. But as the days of sun and starvation wear on and new connections form, Orie starts to question Remy’s motives and wonders who, if anyone, she can trust. Unfortunately, Orie comes across as frustratingly impulsive and immature rather than quirky and lovably offbeat. And, although moments of situational hilarity keep the story light, readers may get bogged down in the inane dialogue and the abundance of pop-culture references.
A promising premise subverted by the execution. (Fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781250760098
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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