A substantive sequel that strengthens the foundation of its predecessor.
Gaines’ (Amare: Bloodstreams, 2016) sequel sees a flurry of new revelations change the dynamic between Amias and his nemesis, Kaden.
Amias is an altéré—a fighter who was born with enhanced strength, stamina, and healing abilities. More than a year ago, his confrontation with rival altéré Kaden, a criminal who kills anyone unwilling to join his organization, led to the deaths of his brother, Blaise; his mentor, Virgil; and his lover, Jasmine. Now, the altéré who fight for good operate from an old cement factory outside London, and along with some human allies (including Mia, Amias’ ex-girlfriend), they number about 200 strong. Their greatest fighter, a woman named Olivia, trains with Amias. His new mentor, John, believes that Amias will be able to take Kaden down; however, the younger man is insecure in his powers. Later, Amias nearly kills one of Kaden’s people, and John fears that Amias is dangerously obsessed with vengeance. As a result, John places an altéré named Lucas in charge of the next mission to gather intel on Andre, Kaden’s deadliest agent. The six-person surveillance mission, however, goes very wrong, and Amias ends up face-to-face with the man who destroyed his family. Kaden then reveals shocking information about Amias’ parents and sibling—but can the manipulative villain be trusted to tell the truth? In this sequel, Gaines adds to his narrative mythology when a council of altéré leaders from around the world meets in London to decide how to beat Kaden. Action fans will find much to love, including an opening melée at a rock concert and a chase on foot through a restaurant. The hard edge of realpolitik intrudes on the gleeful mayhem during a waterboarding scene. Gaines skillfully executes several twists—sometimes playing upon established events, but occasionally stunning audiences with new revelations. Amias also receives solid advice along the way, such as “You can make a choice to allow what’s happened to overcome you, or you can let it make you stronger.” The finale brings savage closure, but also leaves the door open for further adventures.
A substantive sequel that strengthens the foundation of its predecessor.Pub Date: March 20, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 269
Publisher: Troubador Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...
Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.
Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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