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LOTUS PETALS

Name: LOTUS PETALS
Author: Elizabeth Ann Fenton
ISBN: 978-1-982222-89-5

A WAKE-UP CALL

by Elizabeth Ann Fenton ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A cerebral, multiple-timelines novel that squanders its premise with its dearth of drama.

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A survivalist and a yoga-loving teen occupy several timelines in a story that involves the threat of a nuclear attack.

There are three parallel realities in Fenton’s debut SF novel, the first book in a planned trilogy. In Reality A, Davis, an employee of the agency in charge of Oahu’s coastal defense system, arrives at work only to learn that a North Korean missile is headed straight for Honolulu. He sends out an emergency text to the public, then rushes home, grabs his cat, Merlin, and heads for his backyard bunker. A consummate prepper, Davis has stocked the bunker with the supplies needed for this eventuality—but he didn’t expect his 18-year-old neighbor, Lotus, to pound on the door and beg him to let her in. He does, and she begins to chant. Soon they hear that, although a missile struck the city, a larger war has been averted. In Reality B, Davis accidentally sends out an alert despite the fact that no missile is speeding through the sky. Davis’ estranged daughter, Hannah, reappears in his life and befriends Lotus. In Reality C, there is another false alarm—this time Davis isn’t at fault but becomes the fall guy anyway—but Lotus’ mother goes camping and experiences an earthquake. The three timelines unfold, connected by Merlin—who, in addition to being a cat, is an alien who can connect telepathically with his former owner, who now resides in another dimension—and the yogic power of Lotus’ chants. Fenton’s prose is direct and dialogue-heavy, introducing the book’s heady concepts through her characters’ conversation: “ ‘I don’t suppose you believe we can change timelines with imagination and prayer?’ ‘What do you mean by timelines?’ ‘I mean a shift into a different reality that exists in parallel. A timeline would be one version of reality in an infinite multiverse of possibilities.’ ” Despite the intriguing premise, the timelines end up being fairly similar to one another, and none of them is all that engrossing. In practice, this prospective series opener is far less about surviving a nuclear attack than it is about people doing and talking about yoga. Fenton seems to believe that such a practice can lead to world peace, but whether or not that is true, it doesn’t make for very compelling reading.

A cerebral, multiple-timelines novel that squanders its premise with its dearth of drama.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-982222-89-5

Page Count: -

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2020

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.