An engaging, wholesome love story, best suited for fans of early-20th-century romances.
A historical novel follows a privileged young woman whose parents die suddenly, leaving her to find a husband on her own.
In her contribution to the Matchmaker Series, a collaborative project between multiple authors (12 books by 12 authors in 12 months, all including a common matchmaking character), Moore (Summer in New York Collection, 2016, etc.) introduces readers to a lovable heroine who encounters a difficult struggle. Nelle Thompson is approaching her 21st birthday in 1908 in New York City. Her parents haven’t yet found her a husband, but Nelle has such a satisfying relationship with her mother and father that she feels no urgency to create a new attachment. Everything changes when Nelle’s parents are killed unexpectedly. She is sent to the country to live with her nasty, miserly aunt and self-involved cousin. Nelle’s inheritance will not become available to her until her next birthday, and in the meantime, she is at the mercy of her parsimonious aunt. Nelle is ordered to repay every penny used at her aunt’s, down to the last cup of tea, once her trust fund becomes unencumbered. In this horrid environment, Nelle’s grief over her parents intensifies, leading to insomnia and other health problems. The only time Nelle feels like herself is in the company of Mathew Janson, who, sadly, is engaged to her frivolous cousin, Alice. At her wits’ end, Nelle happens upon a quiet apothecary shop in town and makes an immediate connection with the store’s proprietor, a mysterious Asian woman named Miss Pearl. With help from her new friend, Nelle finally begins to get her life in order and create a pathway toward her future. As Moore narrates the story from the alternating perspectives of Nelle and Mathew, readers should be caught up in the magical romanticism of the tale. At one point, Mathew muses that Nelle reminds him “of a china doll in a shop’s window display…sweet inside and out, not exactly blending in with the practical countryside.” The fast-paced book remains appealing even as it deals with difficult topics, ranging from death and depression to love and redemption. Moore tackles each issue with wisdom and grace. Despite the story’s somewhat predictable end, the characters are sufficiently fresh and unexpected that even discerning readers should be satisfied.
An engaging, wholesome love story, best suited for fans of early-20th-century romances.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-941145-67-8
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Mirror Press
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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