A quick, entertaining read about making sense of your past and making the most of your future.
A 20-something woman is keeping a big secret from her friends and co-workers: She’s a widow.
Charlotte Rosen thinks she’s moved on pretty well from her husband Decker’s death five years ago. She started a new job with a social media influencer firm, found a roommate who knows nothing about her past, and convinced her co-workers that she’s just another single young woman in LA. She’s even working on developing her own data-driven dating app that determines a couple’s compatibility based on their social media profiles. Charlotte calls herself a “Numbers Queen” and knows that even though life may have thrown her a curveball in the past, data will never let her down. But life, it turns out, still has plenty of surprises left for her. When Decker’s mausoleum burns down and his ashes show up on her doorstep, Charlotte begins to realize that she didn’t deal with her grief so much as she ran from it. Now, she needs help from the people she left in the past—including her status-obsessed ex–mother-in-law, who’s so controlling that she tries to sneak into Charlotte’s building to steal her son’s ashes back. Charlotte also reconnects with Decker’s best friend, Brian, who used to be a partying frat boy but is now a children’s doctor. Charlotte and Brian shared one impulsive kiss shortly after her husband’s death, and unfortunately, she discovers that her attraction to Brian hasn’t gone away—in fact, now that he’s grown up a little, it’s even stronger. But when Charlotte runs into a woman from Decker’s past, she’s forced to reckon with the fact that she might not have known him as well as she thought she did—and everyone else in her life might be full of surprises, too. Belden (Hot Mess, 2018, etc.) paints a realistic portrait of grief while still creating a story that is fast-paced and fun. The dialogue sparkles, especially when Charlotte is arguing with her snarky roommate, Casey. Plot twists near the end, though, strain credulity—Charlotte is quick to forgive some of the people in her life for major transgressions, and it seems like a more realistic reaction is ignored in favor of tying the ending up with a bow.
A quick, entertaining read about making sense of your past and making the most of your future.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-525-80598-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Graydon House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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