A multifaceted, pleasingly unpredictable story of shifting passions between three friends.
A complex love triangle develops between a headstrong young doctor and the two men in her life in this latest novel from Brae (Insipid, 2014).
Twenty-something physician Anna Dillon decides to escape the turmoil of her life in New York City by volunteering at a medical clinic in a small village in Thailand. Along for the ride is Dante Leola, her “friend and partner-in-crime,” who’s agreed to accompany her and with whom she shares an easy camaraderie. On a beach one night, Anna meets teacher’s assistant Jude Grayson and feels an instant attraction. The novel follows these three characters as their relationship moves from a conventional love triangle to something more multilayered as the book’s action shifts from Thailand back to New York and over several years. Anna eventually marries Dante, and the pace of her professional life increases dramatically. Overall, her life seems settled—but she can’t seem to make herself forget Jude. That buried ambivalence comes to the surface when Jude suddenly reappears in her new life (“the black clouds of Thailand had followed me home,” Anna muses). Brae has a penchant for the purple prose of standard romance fiction; for instance, Dante’s “thin, pouty lips were in perfect harmony with that sexy five o’clock shadow,” and Jude is described as “Adonis personified—piercing dark eyes outlined with a kaleidoscope of colors swirling with secrets.” The somewhat shallow, melodramatic characterizations of the principal players (Dante the steadfast, Anna the manic, Jude the chaos-agent) are mostly redeemed by Brae’s plot complications after her trio is safely relocated to New York. She convincingly dramatizes Anna’s inner torment over her attraction to Jude, and the book’s Christian elements are integrated smoothly enough into the characters’ natures to avoid snagging the narrative. Overall, this is a relationship novel with a good deal of potboiling energy as well as a good deal of heart.
A multifaceted, pleasingly unpredictable story of shifting passions between three friends.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5193-0395-0
Page Count: 356
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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