An amusing, undemanding tale likely to warm readers’ hearts.
The grand opening of a Virginia bed-and-breakfast is the setting for Ball’s (High in Trial, 2013, etc.) latest novel full of comedy and sentiment.
This spinoff from the author’s Ladybug Farm series turns from best friends Bridget, Cici and Lindsay to their Shenandoah Valley neighbors, Paul and Derrick. The couple leaves the social whirl of Washington, D.C., behind and buys a bed-and-breakfast called the Hummingbird House. After much renovation, the two are just about ready to open—but are “now beginning to realize they had not entirely thought this through.” They have enough towels, but how will they get publicity and attract guests? Meanwhile, 97-year-old Annabelle wants her granddaughter Megan to take her on one last trip; she’s not sure of the destination, but she says that she’ll know it when she sees it. At the same time, Joshua Whitman, a young man with a past, is also on the road, trying to find someone. As Paul and Derrick deal with unexpected problems—and unexpected help, including a chiffon-draped spiritualist—they find that the Hummingbird House has the power to bring the right people together. Ball, who has written scores of novels in several genres, knows how to construct a plot, and the pieces of this one fit together handily. Many readers will find it satisfying and uplifting, although others may find its plot too pat. Similarly, many but not all readers will enjoy the book’s heavy emphasis on eating, drinking, interior decorating and gardening, as these well-described sections tend to put more emphasis on lifestyle than on relationships. The book shies away from being too contentious. Confederate soldiers, for example, are called “romantic….Perfectly respectable young men, land owners, classically educated,” but Southern slave-owning goes unmentioned. Also, Paul and Derrick never kiss, although they’re clearly a couple, and the word “gay” never appears. There are touches of real magic, however, including a particularly affecting, gnomish character who helps Josh.
An amusing, undemanding tale likely to warm readers’ hearts.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-0985774837
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Blue Merle Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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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