A simplistic but well-written love story.
Pettersen’s (Studs and Stilettos, 2013) sweet cowboy romance challenges the notions of trust and forgiveness when those you love betray you.
Dani Tattrie is struggling to keep her ranch afloat while her husband, ex-biker Dex, does prison time after engaging in the ultimate betrayal and shutting her out. Her shattered heart is in as much disrepair as her ranch, but she’s a survivor, determined to do what it takes to recover and find her feet again. While Dex carefully navigates prison to ensure his own survival, Dani is being ruthlessly courted by Jeffrey, a town cop whom her minister father adores. Dex offers no excuses for what he’s done, but in prison, he’s risking his own future to protect others. Jeffrey is blatantly portrayed as a one-dimensional, manipulative mismatch for Dani, which winds up making Dani look weak and unsympathetic for falling for him as much as she does. Although Dex’s experiences in prison are vividly written, engaging and realistic, the real story doesn’t begin until halfway through the book, when he’s released from prison and returns to try to reclaim his old life with the wife who no longer trusts him. The extensive scenes between Jeffrey and Dani, which often illustrate his lack of support for her horse world and his insistence that she sell her beloved ranch, can feel redundant at times, making readers impatient for Dex and Dani to finally start interacting. When they finally get together, the chemistry between them is palpable, and as trust slowly regrows, it’s enjoyable to witness true love blossoming for a second time. Yet it seems that their entire conflict could have been cleared up by a simple conversation before the book even begins. The horse scenes in the book are wonderfully rich, showcasing Pettersen’s expertise and passion for horses. The surprise ending with Dani’s brother has an unexpected, clever twist, but the resolution feels rather incomplete since some characters never get their dues.
A simplistic but well-written love story.Pub Date: July 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0988115170
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Westerhall
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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