by Gin Mackey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 27, 2023
A charming, satisfying story of self-discovery and good-old-fashioned small-town benevolence.
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A woman relocates to Maine to restart her life and finds much more than she had bargained for in Mackey’s novel.
Falls Harbor, Maine is the bucolic coastal setting for this kindhearted saga headlined by Sally Kiernan, a single home baker and former insurance analyst who is desperate for a fresh start after spending the last sorrowful year mourning her mother Vivian’s death, “living a half life, sleepwalking” in Massachusetts. Convinced she is destined for greater things, Sally impulsively purchases an abandoned church building with a built-in community center in Falls Harbor; amid a whirlwind of changes, Sally is hopeful she can make a real life for herself in the secluded pastoral Maine village she and her mother had always admired. The purchase is ironic, since Sally’s faith in everything (including starting her own baking business) has been swallowed whole by her crushing grief. Vivian’s ashes aren’t even set on the church’s mantle before Sally experiences a violent culture clash: Her car is almost hit head-on by one of the local elderly curmudgeons, then she’s scolded and schooled by a man she dubs “Crab” on the bad manners of aggressive honking. She adjusts nicely, if a bit apprehensively, to the area’s erratic weather patterns, the local busybodies, and the town’s uncertain fiscal future (and increasing food insecurity) in the fallout of corporate behemoth Gold Leaf Corporation’s departure from the area. In addition to the neighborly Crab, other quirky denizens who befriend Sally include Frankie, a young boy; Abby, Falls Harbor’s own “home funeral guide”; and kooky 80-year-old widower Dottie. Dottie is aunt to Liam, the “high-falutin” town chef, whose arrogance and nasty pessimism instantly spurs Sally to follow her mother’s original business plan and open the church as a restaurant and bakery. Buoyed by hopes, prayers, and “magical” angel earrings, she joins forces with the rest of Falls Harbor, believing that her mother’s coveted recipe for iced, oversized “hubcap” cinnamon rolls can save the town and her faith in herself (and, though she’s reluctant to admit it, maybe even summon possibilities for romance).
Mackey is a confident writer, and this novel, her first non-mystery, nicely showcases her talents for crafting amiable characters, an evocative and realistic setting, and an engaging (if toothless) plotline that’s accessible for any reader. Led by Sally’s first-person narration, readers instantly become familiar with her as a benevolent if cautious woman, a hopeful businessperson, and, above all, a fallible human sensitive to others’ opinions of her. A snappy edit is needed, however, to tighten up the momentum a bit to set up the highly anticipated resolution readers will be rooting for—though the narrative’s leisurely pace may be appealing to readers who enjoy stories set in sleepy towns like Falls Harbor. While this is wholly Sally’s story to tell, other voices and perspectives would have helped to develop some of the peripheral characters more fully and create a more well-rounded story. Still, fans of the heartfelt, sentimental stories of Fannie Flagg will find much to enjoy in Mackey’s affectionate world, anchored by newfound friends, steadfast community, and the blush of new beginnings and realized dreams.
A charming, satisfying story of self-discovery and good-old-fashioned small-town benevolence.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2023
ISBN: 9780997208047
Page Count: 313
Publisher: Pink Granite Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Liz Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2024
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
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Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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