A poignant and heartfelt contemporary romance.
A widow recovering from a devastating accident finds hope and renewal in an unlikely place in this series opener.
Kara Lange Hart is no stranger to tragedy and loss. When Kara was 14 years old, her mother, Susan, abruptly left the family and was discovered dead two years later in Ohio. Later, Kara marries her college sweetheart, Niles, and moves to northern Virginia. After six years of marriage, she is thrilled to learn she is pregnant; but before she can tell Niles, the couple is involved in a car accident. Niles is killed instantly, and Kara suffers a miscarriage along with serious injuries. Bereft, Kara moves in with her father, Henry, to recuperate. When her father tells her that he is planning to purchase a Victorian mansion in an area of Louisa County called Cub Creek, she decides to move with him and stay until she can find a new job and place of her own. While the mansion needs renovating, Kara is struck by the property’s beauty, particularly the field of wildflowers behind the house. She soon befriends her new neighbors Nicole Albers, a real estate agent and close friend of her father’s, and Nicole’s brother, Seth, and settles into the quieter pace of life in Cub Creek. The move also prompts the usually reserved Henry to open up to Kara about his difficult childhood and the tragic circumstances of her mother’s death. Kara sees the possibility of a life in Cub Creek when a tragedy forces her to decide whether to leave her new friends or remain in the community she has grown to love. This first installment of Greene’s (The Memory of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) Wildflower House series is an affecting and emotionally resonant tale of love, loss, and the possibility of second chances that’s bolstered by a winsome heroine, well-drawn supporting characters, and a nuanced story full of surprising twists and turns. Kara is a strong and dynamic protagonist whose physical and emotional recovery from the car accident that killed her husband lie at the center of the tale. She is surrounded by a vivid and likable supporting cast, including Henry, a dependable, hardworking man whose taciturn nature hides a secret sorrow; and Seth, a former journalist and self-described “guy-of-all-trades,” whose friendship with Kara slowly blossoms into something deeper and more significant. The setting plays a major role in the story, and the author deftly brings the community of Cub Creek and the Victorian mansion known as the Wildflower House to life, from the friendly real estate agent who knows whom to call to have something repaired to the descriptions of the breathtaking beauty of the wildflowers (“As a mass, they raised their bright faces to the sun, gathered its rays, and reflected the light from bloom to bloom, ultimately bouncing it back to greet my eyes”). The briskly paced narrative also includes several well-developed subplots, including Henry’s revelations about his past and Kara’s exploration of her marriage to Niles. The tale may appeal to fans of Debbie Macomber or Nicholas Sparks.
A poignant and heartfelt contemporary romance.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4060-0
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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