A beautifully written debut about a woman overcoming grief and finding herself.
A contemporary tale of love and loss.
Novelist Andee lives in a beach house in California, far enough away from other people that she’s able to enjoy peace and quiet. Just after her 55th birthday, she finds out terrible news: The formerly empty rental house near her home has been leased—for a two-year term. Now, Andee’s morning runs are interrupted by greetings from her new neighbor, Kevin Coultier, no matter how standoffish she acts during each interaction. While on a plane to New York City to visit friends, make stops on a book tour, and sign some contracts, Andee gets a tarot-card reading from the kind girl in the seat next to her, and it causes her to rethink her stance toward her neighbor. Before long, Andee finds herself softening toward Kevin, especially when he cares for her after finding her passed out on the beach following a night of drinking. Soon, they’re running together each morning and spending the Christmas holidays together; she even feels comfortable telling him about the loss of her 19-year-old son years ago. Could this friendship blossom into something more? Debut author Belle offers a lyrical novel about dealing with heartbreak and finding ways to move on. The author’s style is often poetic, bringing life to descriptions of everyday things, such as a jog on the beach: “Today she was again imagining the breeze as a sheer, silky robe that caressed her arms and legs in a beautiful white splendour that only an angel could provide….She didn’t feel like she was running—she was flying along, her feet never touching the sand.” The book is told almost entirely from Andee’s third-person perspective, so the occasional jumps to Kevin’s point of view can feel jarring. It’s the first in a planned trilogy, but it works well as a stand-alone, even offering a satisfying resolution.
A beautifully written debut about a woman overcoming grief and finding herself.Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4321-0
Page Count: 204
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
