A bright emergency flare of a story sent up from history’s darkness.
A woman uncovers her mother’s past in an understudied chapter of World War II history.
After her 86-year-old mother falls off a step stool in her closet, Katrine finds a hidden box with a swastika on the lid—a symbol of hate that turns out to contain the remnants of her mother’s love story. In a single day, her mother, Allina, shares the story of her childhood in Germany and journey to America, a story she’d never told Katrine before, changing the course of their relationship. Allina grew up in Badensburg, raised by her aunt and uncle and betrothed to her childhood sweetheart. Badensburg is an idyllic 150-person village, defined by lake views and strudel until the fall of 1938. That’s when Allina wakes to gunfire one day and flees Badensburg, carrying little but the forged papers that conceal her half-Jewish identity. The next day, she finds herself at a building that’s part of Heinrich Himmler’s eugenics program, Lebensborn—a “baby factory” devoted to providing children to “pure” German families. The inhabitants are told that “every mother of good blood is a sacred asset of our existence,” especially considering how many lives were lost during the war. Allina has never been good at concealing her thoughts, no matter how heretical, so SS officer Karl von Strassberg needs only a glimpse of her face to know she isn’t like the other German women in the program. Karl recruits Allina for a secret project to rescue the Lebensborn children, at great personal risk. As Germany’s power grows, Allina and Karl reveal themselves to one another, their alliance gaining momentum alongside its inevitable historical context. Allegri raises questions about duty, morality, circumstance, and sacrifice. Embodying those dilemmas are Allina, the resilient woman who refuses to become a victim, and Karl, the villain with a heart of gold. Although these old tropes do ring familiar, Allegri imbues her characters with a depth of feeling that’s alive and entirely its own.
A bright emergency flare of a story sent up from history’s darkness.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781250326522
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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