A heartwarming and wholesome commentary on the importance of human connection.
A debut novel follows a young woman who comes to terms with her mother’s death by joining a community therapy group.
Gracie Anderson, this tale’s protagonist, agrees to join a support group at the local community center when her best friend, Chloe, insists it’ll be a great place to meet guys. As it turns out, Chloe has signed Gracie up to attend a women’s-only group. And the only thing Gracie, an accomplished college professor, has in common with these women is her dead mother. Gracie feels sure she does not belong in this haphazard crew, which includes a dominatrix, a librarian, a fashion consultant, and a homemaker. Reluctantly giving the support group a chance, Gracie finds that the women’s shared status as motherless daughters is sufficient to start a legitimate bonding process. Even better, the fashion consultant has a superhot twin brother, so there might be a guy to meet after all. As Gracie gets to know each of the women in her group and finally starts dealing with the grief she has harbored for years, she also begins an exciting courtship with Jack Bradshaw, the handsome twin. Unfortunately, just as the romance starts to flourish, Gracie’s childhood sweetheart, Sam Patterson, shows up, insisting that he’s finally ready to commit to her. As her relationships with these two suitors grow uncomfortably complicated, Gracie relies on her new friends from the therapy group to help her wade through the confusing love triangle. Thanks to many refreshing twists throughout this comical story, Reynolds avoids predictability and keeps the reader guessing until the end as to which man will ultimately win Gracie’s heart. Told in chatty, accessible prose, reminiscent of Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin, Reynolds’ story draws the reader in by combining the hefty topic of debilitating grief with many lighthearted, nearly slapstick moments centered on friendship and romance. The author provides an in-depth look at the coping mechanisms used by motherless daughters and the potential effectiveness of human interaction in dealing with despair. This tale turns out to be an appealing beach read with a little meat on its bones.
A heartwarming and wholesome commentary on the importance of human connection.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5320-0676-0
Page Count: 404
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
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
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