A romantic tale about the restorative potential of travel that is both emotionally involving and predictable.
An American woman travels to Rome to find her birth mother and ends up entangled in a complicated romance.
Julia Ramos, a Texas native, takes her first trip to Europe in order to find the Italian woman who put her up for adoption when she was a baby. After landing in Rome, she sees a homeless man abusing a small dog, and before she can stop herself, she grabs the puppy and makes a run for it. She races across an open square, darts in front of an oncoming car, and the driver, British architect Daniel Stafford, narrowly avoids running her over. Even as he admonishes her for her reckless behavior, the chemistry between the pair is apparent. As luck would have it, Julia bumps into Daniel multiple times after the near accident, and he offers to help with the search for her mother by driving her and the puppy toward his sister’s house in Tuscany. Julia’s hunt for her mother grows ever more complicated, and she ends up staying with Daniel at his sister’s Tuscan home. Romance ensues, and both worry the relationship will crash, yet neither seems ready to give up. Via straightforward prose, the author presents believable characters with complex interior lives. As the storyline toggles between Daniel’s and Julia’s points of view, Mikalsen (Wrapped in the Stars, 2018) portrays two young adults who are floundering, each struggling to find meaning in the daily lives they’ve been living. As they attempt to find their places, personally and professionally, the result is a compelling tale of two people muddling their way through self-discovery. Although many secondary characters play to type, the novel abounds with well-researched details, ranging from architectural landmarks and topographical details to the cultural norms for ordering pizza. Despite the predictability of the plotline, the evocative emotional connection between the main characters makes the read worthwhile.
A romantic tale about the restorative potential of travel that is both emotionally involving and predictable.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5092-2739-6
Page Count: 342
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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