by Ellen Gilman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2018
A clever concept delivered in a quick beach read; plenty of amusing canine antics for those who love dogs and their slightly...
A young woman decides to open a bakery where humans can sip coffee while their dogs indulge in the specialty of the day.
Millie Whitfield is walking her two rescue shelties, Luke and Annie, when she sees that Cristopher’s Ice Cream and Cookie Shoppe in Houndsville has suddenly closed and the building is up for sale. It is the perfect location for Millie to fulfill her dream of opening a dog bakery. Now she just needs her husband, Carl, to buy the old farmhouse—plus she must assemble a team to work with her. Fortunately, she has hometown friends to call on. Carolyn will help with management, and MaryEllen (the live-in girlfriend of Millie’s older brother, Bradley) will do the baking. Longtime friend Todd fills out the crew. After almost losing the space to the owner of Miss Annabel’s Tea and Coffee Emporium, Millie finally opens the bakery. But Annabel Larson continues to try to sabotage the enterprise, including reporting supposed violations to the health department. When Millie is not spending time running the bakery—including throwing a birthday party for Luke, complete with a dog-safe cake—she is busy playing matchmaker for her customers and friends and organizing an emergency fundraising ball to cover medical costs for 87 shelties rescued from a backyard breeder. Stylistically, Gilman’s (Mollie’s Tail, 2013) prose is casual and too often cutesy—the shops of Houndsville have annoyingly alliterative names (Julie’s Jewels; Frannie’s Flowers; Bridget’s Bookstop), and Millie is always in need of one of Carl’s “squishy hugs.” Character development is minimal, but with the exception of Annabel, the cast—both human and furry—makes for pleasant company. And it’s fun to watch the team devise unique, dog-friendly recipes for biscuits, pupcakes, and muffins. More importantly, the primary message of the breezy narrative—to urge the adoption of rescue dogs—is solidly communicated without sounding too preachy.
A clever concept delivered in a quick beach read; plenty of amusing canine antics for those who love dogs and their slightly quirky humans.Pub Date: May 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4575-6188-7
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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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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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