A touching novel about the power of female friendship, forgiveness, and honesty.
When a woman in need of a surrogate meets a happy-go-lucky socialite, she receives an offer she can’t refuse.
Nora Hammond has gotten used to her life. She works at the high-end Manhattan vintage boutique I’ll Have Seconds, spends lazy Sunday mornings with her husband, Jacob, and FaceTimes her best friend, Meg, to discuss the dream homes they find on Zillow. Nora is content with what she has, though she's gone through years of failed IVF treatments that left her with nothing but bills. Just when Nora and Jacob embrace the fact that they may never have a baby, their carefully curated acceptance ends on one fateful day—the day Evelyn Elliot strolls into I’ll Have Seconds. A “Kentucky Elle Woods,” Evelyn is lavish, stylish, and delightfully over-the-top, and she’s a breath of fresh air blown into Nora’s dreary life. Evelyn saunters around the boutique, dropping thousands on blouses, gowns, and the rare books Nora loves. Baffled by the sudden commission windfall, Nora can’t help but feel enamored with her new customer. Not only did Evelyn breezily provide I’ll Have Seconds with its largest sale in months, but she later sent Nora a special gift for her styling assistance: a one-of-a-kind Dior cloak designed for her mother’s favorite poet, currently worth upward of $15,000. Evelyn begins asking Nora to complete a few personal assistant–type favors, sprinkling in cash and extravagant gifts, until she unveils her biggest thank-you yet: She offers to be Nora and Jacob’s surrogate for their final embryo. Nora is hard-pressed to refuse Evelyn’s offer, but soon enough, Evelyn’s lackadaisical approach to pregnancy and the Hammonds’ financial burdens threaten to ruin the unlikely friendship. Griffin’s novel weaves a tale of hope in the advent of unexpected change. Nora and Evelyn couldn’t be more different, and yet they connect through their cause as mothers, almost as if they are long-lost sisters. As the two are brought even closer together by the baby they share, Griffin deftly portrays how, despite that fact that motherhood looks different for all women, the love remains the same.
A touching novel about the power of female friendship, forgiveness, and honesty.Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9781728264059
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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