An imaginative and unpredictable time-travel tale.
A debut literary novel in Spanish explores life, death, and faith.
“¿Estoy muerto o dormido?” (“Am I dead or sleeping?”), the protagonist asks at the outset of this tale. Known in the modern world as Uriel Romero, he finds himself in New Mexico in the 1600s. In this time period, he is Diego, a man attached to a Franciscan mission. His goal, or so he is told, is to bring the nearby Apache into the fold of Christianity. In his normal life, Uriel was an aspiring novelist. He was raised Roman Catholic though, as an adult, he became an agnostic. He finds the idea of preaching to the Apache terrifying. He explains, to no avail, that all he wants to do is wake up from this absurd dream. But his life only becomes more bizarre and complicated. Things start out oddly enough (including Uriel’s encountering the angelic sounds of Mahler). Later, the action shifts to other times and places while examining Uriel’s past. Whether Uriel is hearing the mini-Moog of Yes’ Rick Wakeman in his head, learning about karma, or wandering around his small apartment in Ithaca, New York, in 1996, the possibilities are many. Where will Uriel’s strange journey finally come to an end? Moreno’s story is surreal to say the least. One moment, Uriel’s Apache guide, Refugio, is his normal self. Then, in the next instant, he is suddenly speaking Spanish. Refugio is now someone named Doctor Hogan. While such transformations can be startling, they evoke the eerie sense that anything or anyone may be just around the corner. Uriel is the type of ordinary individual stuck in an extraordinary situation whom readers will empathize with. How can a man who has a taste for progressive rock and an urge to write a novel suddenly make do with the life of a 17th-century monk? Never mind the many dangers that abound—or the troubles of Uriel’s personal life. But some conversations prove bland. For instance, when Uriel is told that his karma is in play, his response is a flat “¿Mi karma?” (“My karma?”). Yet the inventive story ultimately delivers an intricate adventure beyond the normal constrictions of time and space.
An imaginative and unpredictable time-travel tale.Pub Date: May 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-706111-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.
A lively and unabashedly sentimental novel examines the impact of feminism on four upper-middle-class white women in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1963.
Transplanted Ohioan Margaret Ryan—married to an accountant, raising three young children, and decidedly at loose ends—decides to recruit a few other housewives to form a book club. She’s thinking A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but a new friend, artistic Charlotte Gustafson, suggests Betty Friedan’s brand-new The Feminine Mystique. They’re joined by young Bitsy Cobb, who aspired to be a veterinarian but married one instead, and Vivian Buschetti, a former Army nurse now pregnant with her seventh child. The Bettys, as they christen themselves, decide to meet monthly to read feminist books, and with their encouragement of each other, their lives begin to change: Margaret starts writing a column for a women’s magazine; Viv goes back to work as a nurse; Charlotte and Bitsy face up to problems with demanding and philandering husbands and find new careers of their own. The story takes in real-life figures like the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham and touches on many of the tumultuous political events of 1963. Bostwick treats her characters with generosity and a heavy dose of wish-fulfillment, taking satisfying revenge on the wicked and solving longstanding problems with a few well-placed words, even showing empathy for the more well-meaning of the husbands. As historical fiction, the novel is hampered by its rosy optimism, but its take on the many micro- and macroaggressions experienced by women of the era is sound and eye-opening. Although Friedan might raise an eyebrow at the use her book’s been put to, readers will cheer for Bostwick’s spunky characters.
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781400344741
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper Muse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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