A gripping, compulsively readable tale of love and deception.
In Trust’s (Love on the Edge of Tomorrow, 2011, etc.) romantic thriller, a young newlywed’s marriage becomes a nightmare when she discovers her husband has a dark side and a wealth of secrets.
In 1971, intelligent, athletic, and devoutly religious Jessie Daniels wants nothing more than to go to college. After completing a rigorous college preparatory program at her high school, she plans to attend the state university; however, her parents insist that she continue her education at the local community college. When she attracts the attention of her softball coach, Kevin McKenna—an aspiring politician and the son of a local farmer—she believes that she’s met the man of her dreams. Their passion burns brightly, but reality intrudes when Jessie discovers that she’s pregnant. Jessie and Kevin marry and rent a small house near the McKenna farm, but her hopes for a happy home life fade during their honeymoon, when Kevin berates her and changes their plans at the last minute. His suspicious behavior, which includes an association with local drug dealers, continues even after Jessie gives birth to their children. She wants their marriage to work, but as threats mount, she faces desperate choices. This second novel from Trust is an engrossing romantic suspense tale, replete with dynamic, complex characters. The story offers a vivid portrait of life in a small-town farming community in the early 1970s, highlighting the importance of church life and the camaraderie of local sports. The strong, well-developed cast is led by Jessie as she struggles to maintain her family and sanity amid escalating abuse. The author also shows how Kevin’s persuasive charm enables him to gaslight his wife and those closest to her. However, there are a few minor copy editing issues; for example, one character is referred to as “Lynette” and “Lynnette” at different points.
A gripping, compulsively readable tale of love and deception.Pub Date: April 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73214-580-1
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Year of the Book Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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