Sheehan uses her skills as both a psychologist and a writer to create a solid, insightful story that will leave fans eagerly...
Surrounded by her Peaks Island friends, widow Rocky Pelligrino’s emotional journey continues in Sheehan’s sequel to Lost & Found (2007).
Rocky, a psychotherapist, has settled comfortably into a rental house on Peaks Island, off Portland, Maine, with her beloved black lab, Cooper. Her husband Bob's sudden death just 15 months earlier shook her entire world, but her stay on the island has given Rocky some much-needed time to adjust to and reflect on the changes that have occurred. Although she is working as a game warden and enjoys her new job, Rocky must face a difficult decision: Should she stay on the island or return to her counseling job at a university on the mainland? Rocky has forged close friendships with several of the locals in this special close-knit community, including Tess, an elderly physical therapist and rental property manager; her boss, Isaiah; and Melissa, a teenager who struggles with anorexia and is completely devoted to Cooper and Rocky. Still in the throes of trying to redefine her life, Rocky even has begun to take the first steps toward falling in love again with Hill, her archery instructor. Then two events occur that help Rocky decide. She buys an old house that she feels a strong connection to and makes plans to renovate, and she receives a phone call from Natalie, an 18-year-old girl who is searching for her biological father. In Natalie, Rocky discovers a troubled and secretive person, the product of an abusive foster care system. Rocky’s empathetic nature and background as a therapist compel her to help Natalie, and she invites her to stay with her on the island while Natalie searches for a job. As her guest settles into the daily life on Peaks Island, Rocky is determined to heal Natalie’s wounds as well as her own and to uncover the truth about her young visitor’s origins.
Sheehan uses her skills as both a psychologist and a writer to create a solid, insightful story that will leave fans eagerly awaiting another visit from the strong heroine, her dog and her friends.Pub Date: May 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-200812-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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