A well-paced, entertaining read with mermaids, magic, mystery, and mayhem.
A divorced, middle-aged woman’s journey of self-discovery blends with mythology in this aquatic-themed novel.
Perla Palazzo arrives in Italy with a goal to write four articles for TravelBauble.com and launch a new career as a travel writer. Before she even starts writing her first article, she swims in a small cove, where she meets Parthenope, a strange, beautiful woman who reveals herself to be a millennia-old mermaid. She wants to help Perla spice up her trip, and she gives her a cameo to give her a “new perspective.” Perla unexpectedly finds that wearing the necklace makes her suddenly look 20 years younger,which garners her quite a bit of attention when she’s doing research for her article. However, she also starts attracting attention from some dangerous people and even gets herself into situations where her life is in peril. It soon becomes clear that this piece of jewelry isn’t exactly what Perla needs after all. In this fantastical debut novel, author George blends classical myths of merpeople and sirens with the beauty and bustle of modern Italy. Although the main character’s persistent complaints about her aging body quickly become exhausting, they effectively help to highlight the differences that occur when she puts on the magical necklace. The side characters that appear throughout Perla’s journey feel genuine and add appeal to the story, and Italy feels like a living, breathing place rather than simply a diverting setting. The prose is descriptive but not excessively so, and the author does a great job of efficiently relating the small towns and gorgeous scenery.
A well-paced, entertaining read with mermaids, magic, mystery, and mayhem.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-578-67375-2
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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