The conflicts here are big—abandonment, grief, race, the unfairness of fate. The healing powers of sisterhood are comforting...
Half sisters Sky and Tara have, at best, a fragile bond. Will it be enough to save them?
Pearlman (The Christmas Cookie Club, 2010, etc.) offers another warm tale of sisters rescuing each other. As children, Sky and Tara had a wary relationship. Sky’s father died when she was seven, and Tara’s father abandoned her. Each jealous of the other—“at least you knew your father” counters “at least your father is alive somewhere”—neither realizes that having each other is enough. That is, not until tragedy strikes. All grown up, Tara has it all. In an interracial relationship with Aaron, her band mate, she has a beloved child, Levy. Their rap band, Special Intent and Li’l Key, is on the road and poised for stardom. She may even have the opportunity to strike out on her own as a solo act. That is, if she is willing to abandon Aaron and accept the rather creepy attentions of King, the music mogul. Sky has it all, too. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Troy, she has a promising job as an attorney. After many miscarriages and stillborn births, Sky and Troy finally have their beloved Rachel. Suddenly, Troy falls ill, and no antibiotics can eradicate the MRSA from his body. Utterly bereft, Sky can barely acknowledge her own daughter, much less her sister. Among the women who swoop in to help her recover are familiar faces from The Christmas Cookie Club: Marnie, Sissy and Allie. The Plan? Send Sky home with Tara’s traveling band. This, of course, gives the sisters time to work out their relationship. And after screaming arguments, the near death of another loved one and finally released prejudices, the two begrudgingly learn to trust, love and respect each other.
The conflicts here are big—abandonment, grief, race, the unfairness of fate. The healing powers of sisterhood are comforting but, in the end, the resolution is too easy.Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5949-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
The novelist loves this land and these characters, with their enduring values amid a way of life that seems to be dying.
A heartland novel that evokes the possibility of everyday miracles.
The third novel by Wisconsin author Butler (Beneath the Bonfire, 2015, etc.) shows that he knows this terrain inside out, in terms of tone and theme as well as geography. Nothing much happens in this small town in western Wisconsin, not far from the river that serves as the border with Minnesota, which attracts some tourism in the summer but otherwise seems to exist outside of time. The seasons change, but any other changes are probably for the worse—local businesses can’t survive the competition of big-box stores, local kids move elsewhere when they grow up, local churches see their congregations dwindle. Sixty-five-year-old Lyle Hovde and his wife, Peg, have lived here all their lives; they were married in the same church where he was baptized and where he’s sure his funeral will be. His friends have been friends since boyhood; he had the same job at an appliance store where he fixed what they sold until the store closed. Then he retired, or semiretired, as he found a new routine as the only employee at an apple orchard, where the aging owners are less concerned with making money than with being good stewards of the Earth. The novel is like a favorite flannel shirt, relaxed and comfortable, well-crafted even as it deals with issues of life and death, faith and doubt that Lyle somehow takes in stride. He and Peg lost their only child when he was just a few months old, a tragedy which shook his faith even as he maintained his rituals. He and Peg subsequently adopted a baby daughter, Shiloh, through what might seem in retrospect like a miracle (it certainly didn’t seem to involve any of the complications and paperwork that adoptions typically involve). Shiloh was a rebellious child who left as soon as she could and has now returned home with her 5-year-old son, Isaac. Grandparenting gives Lyle another chance to experience what he missed with his own son, yet drama ensues when Shiloh falls for a charismatic evangelist who might be a cult leader (and he’s a stranger to these parts, so he can’t be much good). Though the plot builds toward a dramatic climax, it ends with more of a quiet epiphany.
The novelist loves this land and these characters, with their enduring values amid a way of life that seems to be dying.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-246971-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
