An intriguing start to a promising new series, although stronger editing might have made it an even more compelling read.
In Church’s (The Early Scrolls, 2016, etc.) paranormal romance, a musician’s unusual visions lead him to a parallel dimension where he encounters a woman who may hold the key to his fate.
At 29, Dane Bainbridge, the successful lead singer and songwriter of the band Dark Myst, lives a life that many musicians would envy. Because he’s an avid reader with a fondness for history, he decides to visit a bookstore near his estate. There, he encounters an elderly woman who tells him that he’s actually the reincarnation of her brother, Lance Keagan, a Broadway star who disappeared on his 30th birthday, back in the early 1950s. For Dane, this is the latest in a string of uncanny encounters; since childhood, for example, he’s often caught glimpses of a beautiful woman beside him when he looks in the mirror. He also feels an affinity for a 17th-century knight named Kori Blackmore, who also disappeared at age 30. After an otherworldly encounter during a Dark Myst show, Dane returns to his estate only to face a new vision in his mirror that pulls him into a parallel world known as Mikaire. He finds himself trapped in a dungeon, and his only hope of escape lies with Meirah, a woman whose youthful love for Kori triggered a tragic cycle of death and rebirth. As their feelings for each other grow, Dane and Meirah must escape Mikaire before the cycle begins again. This first novel in Church’s Anachronistic Dimensions series offers an intriguing story and vivid characters and settings. The imaginative premise spans centuries as it tells the story of how Meirah fell in love with Kori and became fated to love and lose him again and again. Despite the book’s successes, though, the editing is uneven; for example, the name of one character is spelled three different ways on one page: “Caitlyn,” “Kaitlin,” and “Caitlin.” Still, Dane and Meirah are likable protagonists whose relationship forms the emotional core of the story, and Kori becomes a vital supporting player with a detailed back story of his own. Church’s descriptions give life and vitality to Mikaire, a dimension where time moves at a much slower pace and the blood of mortals sustains its ruler, Sakkana.
An intriguing start to a promising new series, although stronger editing might have made it an even more compelling read.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-78270-5
Page Count: 372
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2017
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
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