An earnest, candid portrayal of a woman who learns just as much about herself as she does of others.
In Diersen’s (Unmatched, 2012) drama, a Marine wife’s animosity toward an insolent, chauvinistic sergeant is matched only by her growing fondness for the man’s fiancee.
Jackie’s husband, Sgt. Kevin Thompson, introduces her to Katrine, soon to be part of the Marine Corps family via her marriage to Sgt. Rob Copeland. Right away, Jackie doesn’t like Rob; at a party, he humiliates Katrine for not wanting to play a board game and initiates unwanted physical contact with Jackie. Her liberal views are constantly at odds with Rob’s conservatism, yet her relationship with Katrine flourishes, and soon the new acquaintances are much more than mere friends. It’s only a matter of time before possessive Rob learns that the women have become lovers, and because a prologue teases that someone’s been killed, things aren’t likely to turn out well. Diersen’s novel features a complex protagonist who’s reticent and standoffish, but she’s actually pushing people away for reasons that are eventually revealed to both herself and readers. Despite her self-described “defective filter,” the opinionated Jackie isn’t especially offensive in any of her stances. She’s also quite charming: For Halloween, she dresses as an amnesiac and, in response to Kevin’s question of what they should call her, wryly says, “That’s a good question.” Jackie engages in numerous political discussions throughout the story, but the ones with Rob are eventually redundant, simply confirming what’s already been well established—that he’s sexist and insulting. The book tackles several serious issues, including abusive relationships (even if the abuse isn’t always physical) and neglectful parents. But Diersen keeps the story light with dark humor, most notably an abundance of jokes about murder, like Jackie telling her friend Lyn that she doesn’t want to see Rob dead but would prefer it over seeing him alive. Jackie does seem to be testing her marriage in the story, but her scenes with Kevin are some of the book’s best; the couple’s ebullient banter, even when talking about the volatile Rob, is irresistible fun.
An earnest, candid portrayal of a woman who learns just as much about herself as she does of others.Pub Date: July 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692201138
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Blue Gentian Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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