Like so many startups, glossy, fun, and ambitious if not particularly deep.
A new college grad figures out life, love, and the tech world in Yen’s breezy debut.
The outspoken daughter of traditional Taiwanese parents in the Bay Area, Sophia Young returns home newly graduated from college with a very clear life plan: a few years working at a shiny investment bank until she meets “The One,” and then “the white picket fence, two kids (preferably twins), and the Mrs. Homemaker lifestyle” that’s been her dream since childhood. So when speaking out of turn gets her fired at the bank, she’s momentarily distraught—until her best friend helps her get a paralegal gig working on initial public offerings and Sophia is initiated into the startup world, where her no-nonsense pluck makes her a star. Soon, Sophia is managing investor relations and doubling as the right-hand man for a Steve Jobs–like tech founder, and her white picket fence visions give way to new dreams. But finding a partner who can support her ambitions isn’t necessarily easy, Sophia discovers, and amid her success, she’s started neglecting her health. But the biggest test is yet to come: When Andre Stark, a flashy tech founder, convinces her to come run investor relations for him—leaving her beloved old team behind—she finds herself miserable in his Ivy League boys’ club and is forced to make her biggest decision yet. A lone mismatched boyfriend aside, Sophia's world is populated with benevolent and powerful mentors who consistently recognize her hard work (if nothing else, the novel offers a road map for good management), doting parents, a ride-or-die best friend, and few personal flaws of substance, giving the novel a certain fairy-tale quality. While the plot takes the occasional off-kilter jag, this is a much-needed professional coming-of-age story; one only wishes it were a slightly more insightful one.
Like so many startups, glossy, fun, and ambitious if not particularly deep.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267301-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 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.
