A lovely Midwestern tale that’s as cozy and charming as a B&B.
In Cronk’s inspirational debut novel, a woman moves back to her old hometown to pursue a dream of opening a bed-and-breakfast inn.
Samantha Jarrett is still healing from the recent death of her husband, Roger, when she loses her job as an executive assistant at a small college in Ohio. She returns to her hometown of Freedom, Ind., where she and Roger had once wondered what it would be like to run an inn. To that end, Sam wants to purchase the old Foster house, a prized historic home where elderly June Foster lives; Foster’s family owned a prominent food business in town. More than a few folks in Freedom covet the house, but Mrs. Foster chooses Sam to be the new owner. Sam soon moves in to renovate the place she calls Sweetland of Liberty, but she’s unknowingly made an enemy of her former classmate Ellen Madison, a scion of one of Freedom’s oldest families, who wanted the home for herself. Ellen plots to have the B&B shut down and send Sam packing for Ohio, but she doesn’t know that Sam also relies on her faith in God to help keep the business alive. Cronk’s prose is simple and straightforward (“Sam daydreamed about what life might be like a year or two from now when surely everything had smoothed into a calm routine, and she had a chance, at last, to relax on her own porch, in her own life”), and Sam is a sympathetic heroine, whether she’s getting grief from city fathers over a sign ordinance or baking granola for her guests at midnight. Ellen is a fine villain, and her scenes crackle with tension. The short, snappy chapters will keep readers turning pages, and a climactic courtroom scene offers several surprises. In fact, the author hits such a high note with the scene that it’s a letdown that the book doesn’t end there; it’s as if the story is traveling 100 miles an hour and suddenly hits the brakes to coast. This is a small quibble, however, in a terrific debut, which also includes a separate list of the recipes mentioned in the story.
A lovely Midwestern tale that’s as cozy and charming as a B&B.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1493570362
Page Count: 174
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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