An absorbing fusion of a searing family drama with an unusual love story.
After losing her father, a woman discovers startling secrets in his memoir—including events she has suppressed for decades—in this novel.
Lillian Stoney Alexander cares for her ailing father, Graham, in his final days. But it’s his funeral that reignites her desire to learn specifically how her mother, Ivy, died 27 years earlier. Lillian, who was only 6 years old at the time, can’t remember anything beyond Ivy’s apparently fatal accident at their Charleston, South Carolina, ancestral home. But who’s the mysterious woman at Graham’s funeral, and why is Lillian only just now meeting her godmother and Ivy’s best friend, Alice Browder? Lillian ultimately finds a thumb drive containing Graham’s memoir. In an accompanying note, he declares his hope that it will stoke Lillian’s recollections as well as help make peace with her long-hated, fashion designer sister, Layla. His story begins during his first year as a College of Charleston professor, when he initially encountered the daughter of wealthy Edward Stoney. There was nothing conventional about Graham’s eventual relationship with Ivy, from his marriage proposal to the births of their daughters. And what awaits Lillian is a series of disconcerting revelations, even before her memories resurface. Farley’s characters aren’t easy to like. Their lives are teeming with deceit and animus while love isn’t always reciprocated. But the story is endlessly intriguing, with enough plot turns that readers who predict one or two may still be surprised. There’s likewise terrific melodrama: The sisters fight about selling their million-dollar childhood estate, and Lillian’s ex-fiance, Marcus Mullaly, reenters her life. Meanwhile, the appeal of some characters shines through, particularly artistic, sometimes withdrawn Lillian, and the family’s immutable housekeeper, Trudy Jackson, who’s both the protagonist’s close friend and her surrogate mother. The ending befits this realistic portrayal of love, family, and all the complications those two often engender.
An absorbing fusion of a searing family drama with an unusual love story. (acknowledgements, author bio)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73462-942-2
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Leisure Time Books
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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