An involving fictional evocation of the superstar culture of modern football.
A novel of relationships suffused with the world of soccer.
Caraccio’s (Tiburcio!, 2014) vivid, fast-paced novel begins with the story of young Lorenzo Cordinni, a natural-born fantasisti (“a highly skilled player,” the book’s footnotes helpfully supply, “a playmaker”) whose future lies before him “like a wide open net on a breakaway with only the goalkeeper to beat.” Lorenzo is noticed by Italy’s big football league officials, who snap him up and transform him into an international star, the consummate professional sports celebrity. “On the field, Lorenzo was always in control,” we’re told. “He could work his way out of every uncomfortable situation, extricate himself from any predicament.” But when Lorenzo’s team falls short at the World Cup, their return to Italy is accompanied by jeers and hisses, and even Lorenzo’s old father starts to believe, bitterly, that his son has disappointed the hopes of the whole country. Lorenzo is injured; he punches a patron at a trattoria and spends a few days in jail; he’s repeatedly fined by the league. By the time he meets young college student Marco Baccari at a youth soccer camp in California (where Lorenzo is part of the guest faculty of visiting celebrities), he’s a man badly in need of personal renewal. For his part, Marco is in need of the boost Lorenzo’s patronage might give him. From these two characters and the women in their lives, Caraccio fashions a rich and intensely atmospheric novel of football—its culture, its thousand details, the cost it exacts on families and personal relationships. The book’s main strength in doing this is its avoidance of sentimentality; these characters whose lives revolve around the game recognize its tawdry realities with complete clarity—a process shown to best advantage in the character of Lorenzo, whose growth from starry-eyed phenom to weathered veteran makes for the book’s most compelling reading.
An involving fictional evocation of the superstar culture of modern football.Pub Date: March 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5303-7382-6
Page Count: 462
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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