A complex and engrossing family tale with strong characters.
This sequel revisits a troubled family as it wrestles with love in all its beautiful and terrible forms.
The novel begins in 1973. Noël Trudeau, ex-wife of Leon Ziemny, is pregnant. Against her doctor’s dire warning, she gives birth to a daughter, Willow, and dies. Fast-forward to the late ’90s. Armed with her mother’s diary, Willow is determined to probe her past. She embarks on a trip that takes her to her mother’s grave in Willow, Ohio, and then to the Ziemnys, still in the steel town of Langston, Indiana. Old Walt Ziemny is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but the disease soon starts moving fast. His son Ricky, an artist, never married after Noël wed Leon instead of him. That union imploded, and Leon and his second wife, Stella, have, for over 25 years, been in a marriage that died long ago. Then Willow shows up, claiming that Noël was her aunt while she tries to figure things out, test the waters. Slowly, she becomes accepted even if she is still a mystery. Eventually, an important family secret is revealed. Like the author’s previous novel, The Moonstoners(2019),this second volume of a trilogy shows Dzikowski to be a very sensitive observer and writer. Even though the old Polish neighborhood in Langston is changing, the author paints a loving picture of the area, anchored by the parish church and Walt’s tavern, the Mazurka Inn. There are no missteps here, and there are wonderful character studies, especially of Walt and Leon. Walt was the only one to accept Noël from the get-go. Now, his Alzheimer’s is painful for the whole family (and clearly Dzikowski knows a lot about the condition). Leon has always been locked up tight, pushing people away, and readers will want to scream at him, shake him. Willow could be his salvation. He ultimately begins a new life—a better life for a better man. Because everything has been so hard won, the final peace is all the sweeter. Readers will be eagerly awaiting the author’s next installment.
A complex and engrossing family tale with strong characters.Pub Date: June 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9840305-6-9
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Wiara Books
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and tart story stretched over a quirky frame.
A marriage is tested when one of the husbands is abducted by aliens.
Poor Jesse. One of the first things he says to Norman after their meet-cute—colliding on the bike path in Venice, California—is, “Where you go I go.” But years later, after they’ve moved to Joshua Tree, passed middle age, and are contemplating their cooling marriage, Norman steps into an unexplained beam of light in their yard one night and disappears. Jesse enters a period of grief, but also something stranger, since he has no answers and doesn’t know how to talk to anyone about his unheard-of circumstances—though, interestingly, he doesn’t seem to debate with himself about whether he should even try. There are other, more straightforward kinds of grief in this novel, too. For Jesse, there’s the pain of never having had a father, as well as the sorrow he felt after an adoption attempt with Norman that fell through at the last minute. For Norman’s sister, Lally, there’s grief over a brother who died in an accident when she was 5, and over her own nonexistent motherhood. She wants access to the embryos she helped create for Norman and Jesse, but Jesse is prickly about this request. Well, it’s a Steven Rowley book, so most of the characters are prickly. Other things Rowley does well: quippy one-liners (though occasionally a joke comes out of a minor character’s mouth that sounds more like the author’s voice), tertiary characters who shine, funny party scenes with a mix of offbeat personalities and perfectly timed chaos. Also: detailed place description and a tender, unhurried contemplation of the human condition. Plot and structure aren’t so much his bag. Norman is a particularly tough character to grasp. He is less well formed than many of the other characters and neither his disappearance nor the problems in his marriage feel adequately solved.
A sweet and tart story stretched over a quirky frame.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9780593851494
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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