Bruno’s (Think Yourself Thin: How Psychology Can Help You Lose Weight, 2015, etc.) latest novel is an engaging coming-of-age story about a California teen bordering on adulthood just after World War II.
Mario Calvino is his school’s starting quarterback and is dating a cheerleader, neither of which feels right to him. Mario has higher aspirations: “I had just told my mother that I was thinking of not playing football in my senior year. Not a big deal? Wrong. It was a very big deal.” His father, the head football coach, needs a winning season to help with getting tenure. “I didn’t want to let him down,” Mario says. He wants to be a doctor, so he knows that he needs strong grades. Mario also knows that a concussion from football wouldn’t help him meet that goal. Bruno smoothly guides Mario—dubbed the “Knute Rockne Kid” by a local sportswriter—through this obligatory final season as he matures while falling out of and in love and learning about decisions and their consequences. Bruno convincingly characterizes Mario’s close-knit Italian family and his friends, and in a description of Mario’s father: “My father was about six-foot-two. He had a square-cut face dominated by a hawkish nose. There was an air of power and distinction about him. He gave off masculine charm the way a sparkler gives off sparks. And he knew the power he had over people.” Bruno also allows characters young and old to evolve throughout the novel, most finding themselves in a better place by the end. Despite a handful of tragedies, the narrative offers a winning air of optimism. Mario’s bumpy journey to manhood proves to be an enjoyable one for readers.
A pleasant trip to an earlier era that shows how simpler times were still complex.Pub Date: June 15, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Coraggio Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Categories: GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | SUSPENSE
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Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
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