A brisk, humorous story of a middle-aged couple in an unmoored marriage, stumbling toward safe harbor.
A long-term relationship gone stale, a summer of searching, celebrity cameos, and a comic sensibility.
Claire, a 51-year-old massage therapist and energy healer, is fed up with husband Wally’s immaturity. “Scratch the surface of any man and you’ll find a boy,” notes her good friend Roz. Fifty-five-year-old Wally has unfulfilled dreams that feel urgent to him; unfortunately, he has little initiative to realize those dreams, which include writing a novel. After he receives a head injury and apparent visitations from an unexpected supernatural muse and some sexual adventures, readers won’t be sure if the two will be able to make things work together—or, for that matter, on their own. The main characters are most appealing during introspective moments, as readers learn what they once saw in each other and what they now hope for themselves. The pace is consistent and the tone light, although Lincoln overdoes the metaphors at times; Claire thinks about her life’s lack of “balance” and “fluidity” while practicing tai chi, for instance, and feels “adrift” on a canoe trip gone wrong. However, fun cameos by Terry Gross from National Public Radio, along with another surprise guest, may win readers over. The supporting cast keeps the subplots moving, and the couple’s activities, including attempting to date other people, volunteering at a dog rescue, and attending golf tournaments, prevent the story from becoming overly unfocused. Gus, a philosophical dog who communicates eloquently—and telepathically—with mildly psychic Claire, and Sifu, a dojo master, provide cosmic and comic grounding to the couple’s quest for connection. For better or worse, readers may come away with the feeling that these two lost souls might just deserve each other.
A brisk, humorous story of a middle-aged couple in an unmoored marriage, stumbling toward safe harbor.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781578691388
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Rootstock Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.
The World Trade Center attacks are at the center of an intricate, twisty family drama spanning decades in both directions.
“You could brace for your sister to die of a terminal illness, only to have your healthy sibling killed in a random car wreck. You could carry a baby safely to term and then, on a bright blue day in September, walk into a building that collapsed beneath your feet.” Or you could be a character in a Jodi Picoult novel and face all of the above and much, much more. Fans of My Sister’s Keeper (2004) will notice a reference to that novel in the preceding quote and be glad to hear a character from that book is back. During the Covid-19 pandemic, former teenage delinquent Jesse Fitzgerald, now a detective on the Providence, Rhode Island, police force, meets Molly Ambrose, a 19-year-old prodigy who runs the state’s emergency preparedness and response program. “Despite the fact that there were fifteen years between us and we both had enough baggage to fill a cargo hold,” as Molly puts it, the two fall madly in love. The baggage she’s referring to includes, on her side, a mother who died on 9/11 when Molly was less than three months old. Picoult supplies her signature delightful banter and gift for depicting passion and romance to win the reader’s sympathy for this possibly questionable match between dedicated public servants, whose favorite game at bedtime is “Who can think of the most terrifying worst-case scenario?” Very little more can be revealed without spoilers, but trigger warnings for this book would be a long list indeed, ranging from suicide and filicide to rape and mental illness (welcome to Picoultland!). Subplots visit evangelical and Navajo cultures as well as the ins and outs of polygraphy. Make sure to read the afterword in which Picoult explains her real-life sources of inspiration.
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780593726259
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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