A complex and compelling romance with an underdeveloped heroine.
An open-hearted lawyer is forced to choose between her fiance and her dying ex in Friedland’s (Trouble the Water, 2018) novel about love and forgiveness.
Meredith Altman is a successful Jewish attorney living in Manhattan and planning a wedding to handsome Aaron Rapp, a pediatric surgeon. However, in 2017, a celebratory dinner with friends changes everything: The Tribeca restaurant’s chef and owner is Wesley Latner, Meredith’s ex-fiance, whom she hasn’t seen in five years. Old feelings resurface in the form of flashbacks to their young love and Wesley’s unwavering support for Meredith’s tenuous family situation, which had her parents on the verge of divorce before her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Years later, to escape from the stress of the plans for their son’s wedding, Wesley’s parents set out on a vacation and were killed in a plane crash, causing a grief-stricken Wesley to blame Meredith for their deaths before he moved to London. Now that she’s engaged to another man, Meredith seeks closure before Wesley drops a bomb: He’s been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, and his body is rapidly deteriorating. Without consulting Aaron, Meredith invites Wesley to move into the apartment they share, and one intimate moment between Meredith and Wesley threatens Meredith’s relationship with her fiance as well as her sense of self. Can Aaron forgive Meredith for her slip, or is the dying Wesley the one Meredith was meant to be with all along? Friedland’s sharp prose and plotting make Meredith’s dilemma a relatable one: The pull between past and present can be difficult even when a debilitating illness isn’t part of the mix. But Friedland keeps the reader guessing about what Meredith will do—not only about her romantic partners, but also about her career as a lawyer who caters mainly to big tobacco companies. Unfortunately, the development of Meredith’s character often gets lost as she seeks to care for others: her parents, her future in-laws, the former and current men in her life. Though her do-gooder spirit is firmly established, not much else of Meredith’s personality is.
A complex and compelling romance with an underdeveloped heroine.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68463-030-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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