A well-crafted and satisfying work about art and relationships.
Miles’ debut novel delivers a richly detailed love story of cultural opposites in 1960s Brooklyn, N.Y.
Amid the racial, sexual and artistic upheavals of the ’60s, book-smart Jewish 25-year-old Sara Gott falls for street-smart Gavilan, a 19-year-old Hispanic black man who dreams of conquering the modern art world. Sara and Gavilan’s union is portrayed as unhealthy for both of them: “She loved G as much as she could ever love. And yet together they formed a kind of monster that could only devour itself.” Yet this damaged couple shares a deep love of art, as shown in Sara’s self-reflective ramblings and Gavilan’s thoughts as he “immerses” himself in classic paintings to converse with painters Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin. The couple are bound by the erotic nature of their relationship, but also by their respective needs for acceptance. Gavilan wants to remain connected to his culture, but Sara is less anchored to hers, often distancing herself from her mother and her religion. Author Miles skillfully uses Gavilan’s “conversations” with European masters to reveal the artist’s search for truth, yet underscores the disconnect between his dream of becoming a world-famous artist and his lack of focus and drive. However, when Gavilan becomes “America’s most controversial artist” by applying “scat art” to religious artifacts, the author oddly skims over how the artist rose to such prominence. That said, Miles adroitly reveals Sara’s fears, foibles and hang-ups through Sara’s self-doubting soliloquies and psychiatric sessions. Miles and Selma Eisenstadt add several simple but engaging illustrations.
A well-crafted and satisfying work about art and relationships.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-1463659820
Page Count: 430
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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