A pleasantly bookish ghost story.
Historical fiction entwining the fate of a bereaved Harvard student and the late Harry Elkins Widener.
Harvard’s Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library was endowed by his mother in memory of her son, who was just 27 years old when he went down, along with his father, on the Titanic. Lore has it that he parted from his mother in the lifeboat to go back to his stateroom for a priceless book; Richman’s tale grows out of her notion that this was not the real reason. Oh yay, another doomed love story on the Titanic! To wend her fictional way to that watery heartbreak, the author has invented a lonely Harvard junior named Violet Hutchins, who gets a job as a page at the Widener in 1992, the fall after her boyfriend, Hugo, drowns while they are out for a swim, and also breathes life back into Harry Widener himself, now a spirit who lives in his eponymous library and uses his considerable ghostly powers to set Violet on the trail of a story no one has ever known, the story of his secret love. “The one thing a ghost learns rather quickly is that the living fail to appreciate subtlety when it comes to receiving otherworldly communications,” Harry says, before chucking books off the shelf and filling the air with the scent of his pipe tobacco to get Violet’s attention. Richman also weaves in the true story of vandalism at the Widener in the 1990s, blame for which shifts toward poor Violet, who’s making everyone nervous with her Ouija board and her growing interest in communicating with the dead. The progress of her investigation unfolds in tandem with Harry’s account of his doomed love, moving more slowly than would be ideal, but finally snapping together as one thought they might. The novel has a YA feel and indeed might be shared with a history-minded young reader.
A pleasantly bookish ghost story.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781454953210
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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