A fun-filled romantic steampunk story that returning readers will enjoy.
In Fraedrich’s steampunk novel (one in a series), an idealistic man loses his family and status, only to gain something more rewarding.
As an Enforcer in the city of Springhaven, Falcon Smoke is a member of a brutal guard that’s supposed to find justice but more often causes strife. Falcon has recently earned the position of Steward of the Sage, a title he hopes to use to stop the cruelty of Enforcers and promote fairness and safety for the citizenry. After publicly disgracing his grandfather, a high-ranking Enforcer, he leaves his family home, cut off from the wealth of his heritage; to add insult to injury, he’s dealing with chronic pain. His friend Beatrice Holmes helps him find lodgings to rent, as well as a roommate, Keene Kohli. While Falcon focuses on the rules of etiquette and worries about saying the right thing, struggling to transcend the teachings of his upper-crust family, the handsome and friendly Keene seems to have no worries at all. When Falcon and Keene come home to find they’ve been robbed of nearly everything they own, Keene doesn’t wish to report the crime due to the notoriety of the Enforcers’ brutality and the well-known horrors of the justice and prison systems (“I don’t want someone locked away for the rest of their lives over mere stuff”). The men begin their own investigation, and soon Falcon finds himself growing closer to Keene as sparks fly between them. Fraedrich has crafted an excellent mystery story, returning to the familiar steampunk world of the Broken Gears series and its characters. Falcon’s desire to reform the Enforcers is an unusual and compelling conflict and adds complexity to his character. Keene is an engaging presence who shows dimension as he grows closer to Falcon and reveals his own backstory. Their romance is believable, growing out of an initial friendship and sparked by genuine chemistry and compatibility. The romance is interwoven with the mystery, and both have a rewarding conclusion.
A fun-filled romantic steampunk story that returning readers will enjoy.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9798218026684
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Goat Song Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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