A bevy of sublime characters elevates this smashing paranormal tale.
In this second installment of a new-adult supernatural series, a college student capable of seeing ghosts finds herself linked to a deadly arsonist.
It’s been months since the death of 19-year-old Callie McCayter’s best friend, Izzy Miller. Determined to stay at Astoria College in Oregon, where Izzy died, Callie is ready for the spring semester. But she’s isolating herself from many people, such as Izzy’s parents, who took Callie away from her abusive, alcoholic father and loved her as their own daughter. Callie has been able to see and occasionally communicate with Izzy’s ghost. Lately, however, she’s observing other spirits and having trouble distinguishing them from the living. Callie’s afraid of what her loved ones will think if they catch her interacting with someone only she can see. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing before the semester starts, as Callie’s relationship with her boyfriend, Jay Houghten, isn’t as precisely defined as he would like. Callie, who fears losing someone she loves, as she did her mother to cancer years ago, has been pushing Jay away. Suddenly, transfer student Reid Halsey arrives at Astoria. Sure, he’s arrogant, but Callie can’t deny the inexplicable power between them when the two make physical contact. Meanwhile, Callie is dreaming of “the burning man,” who is leaving fiery destruction in his wake. She soon realizes a string of local cases of arson—with fatalities—has been unfolding in real life. Callie’s abilities put her in a unique position to stop the arsonist, an endeavor that will undoubtedly put her and possibly her friends in danger. As in her earlier novel, Rosengard (Spooked, 2018) concentrates more on Callie’s real-world drama than paranormal elements. Though ghostly sightings and burning man dreams create an eerie ambiance, they often take a back seat to Callie’s romantic turbulence. Nevertheless, characters are endlessly enthralling. Jay, for example, is transparently envious of Reid and gets maybe too close to one of Astoria’s professors, but his concern for Callie’s well-being is genuine. Additional standout characters are Callie’s pals Noemí Orozco, Bethany Humphries, and especially resident adviser Jenna, who has an uncanny knack for reading people. The dynamic protagonist continues to grow in this installment. She learns that she has other abilities and encounters people who also sense ghosts. And even without supernatural powers, she’s formidable. Though readers witness little of her “self-defense prowess,” her instincts are superb (for example, she figures out that keys are handy as makeshift brass knuckles). Much of this story’s mystery stems from Callie’s messages from Izzy. She rarely hears her ghost friend, who communicates by moving books or tarot cards. But Izzy manages to deliver an ambiguous warning via a dream: “He’s coming.” Surprisingly, identifying the burning man is more or less resolved well before the ending. But this precedes an intense and revealing final act, which includes a plot turn or two that shakes Callie’s world and leaves prime material for another volume to pick up. To offset the generally somber tone, there are dashes of humor: Callie Googles a potential word for her ability, “touched,” and gets websites she isn’t exactly looking for.
A bevy of sublime characters elevates this smashing paranormal tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73291-522-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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