by Donna Ball ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 2013
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
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BOOK REVIEW
by Donna Ball
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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