Poet and first-time novelist Davidson writes with a thundering of monosyllables—the kind of sonorous, self-consciously “poetic” language favored by some contemporary poets, especially those covering the same themes as Davidson does here in an earthy, womanist tale of reconnecting with one’s peasant ancestors after years of cultural deracination in America. Full of awkward digressions on “story-telling,” Davidson intercuts her episodic narrative with relevant myths. After all, her half-Greek-American narrator spends much of the book in the homeland, where she dumbs-down Greek mythology so that it’s relevant to her contemporary snapshots of family history and robust sex. The sketches of her Greek-born grandmother serve some sort of feminist point—the woman’s independence in America was squashed by the patriarchy. The narrator romanticizes her own mother, born in Queens, as “political, brave, compassionate, clever, East Coast,” an Eleanor Roosevelt type who worked as a reporter in Manhattan. But that was after the mother’s own visit to Greece, where marriage prospects frightened her back home. In turn, of the novel concerns the narrator’s trips to Greece, first as a summer student abroad, and then, later, as a cub reporter for UPI. During that extended period, she sleeps with a number of men, including a Greek-American basketball player who abuses her. When news of Chernobyl hits Athens, she joins the panic. After visits from her parents, and an Easter spent in her family’s village, she feels ready to return home, where her ethnicity will be honored by the recipes she now knows, including that of the title (imam baldi in the original Greek), a garlicky dish of eggplant and zucchini. When the formulaic chapter headings, with their retold myths, begin to wear, Davidson retreats to folklore about mountain bandits and the evil eye. For all her talk about “stories,” this search for matriarchal roots lacks narrative drive or focus.
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8050-5539-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.
Brown (Mean Streak, 2014, etc.) ticks off the boxes that elevate her books to the bestseller lists in this sexy romantic thriller set in Texas.
Rock-jawed hero with a dark past: check. Strong-willed, beautiful woman who resists his charms: check. A Whitman’s Sampler of bad guys: check. And finally, a convoluted and not always plausible plot: check. In this latest outing, readers meet TV journalist Kerra Bailey, whose family was torn apart years ago by a hotel bombing that killed 197 people in Dallas. Just in time for the 25th anniversary, Kerra scores an interview with the notoriously private Maj. Trapper, who saved her life, among others, when he emerged from the blast to lead the survivors out of danger. There's an iconic, prizewinning photo of the major carrying a little girl from the wreckage, but the child has never been identified—until now, when Kerra goes public with the information that it was her. Just after they finish filming the interview in his home, the major is shot, and an injured Kerra escapes in the confusion. The major’s son, disgraced Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent John Trapper—a name M*A*S*H fans will appreciate—steps in, igniting a chain of events that leads to murder, intrigue, betrayal, and a series of dark revelations. As with most of Brown’s heroes and heroines, there’s palpable sexual tension between Trapper, whose taut rear occupies ample literary real estate, and Kerra, who when dealing with Trapper feels “like he’d lightly scratched her just below her bellybutton” when he’s not making her “pleasure points throb.” The complex plot plays out in a round of reveals that don’t always make a lot of sense, but that’s not why Brown’s fans read her books. They check in for the witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fluid writing. A master of her genre, Brown knows how to please her most ardent readers but relies too often on the same basic formula from novel to novel.
As the plot grows more complicated, it also sheds believability, leaving sex and witty banter to carry the day.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4555-7210-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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