Overly neat and calling on too many tropes, this novel offers wish fulfillment without nuance or complexity.
In this debut romance novel, a woman with a traumatic childhood hopes to find healing on an Alaskan vacation, where she meets an intriguing widower.
Dana Montgomery has long dreamed of visiting Alaska, a place that represented escape to her when she was an unhappy, lonely child, the victim of her sexually abusive uncle. Several people, including Dana’s therapist, have been nudging her to take a sabbatical; Mark, Dana’s thoughtful and caring (but maybe overprotective) best friend/boyfriend, sees her off with good wishes. In the beautiful summer landscape of south central Alaska, Dana tries to let go of her past, but horrific images of the abuse keep intruding. Meanwhile, Dana meets Luke MacFarland. After his wife died, he built what was to have been their dream house on a 9-acre island; he sails, does carpentry jobs and plays guitar at a local bar. The two feel immediately relaxed with each other. At Luke’s, they explore the island together, and Dana learns she can trust him. For the first time, Dana experiences truly joyful, painless, uninhibited sex. As the book ends, Luke says goodbye to Dana, hoping she will return. For Dana, what matters most is knowing her future will be one “of her making, on the path of her choice.” Hatfield’s fast-paced debut novel makes excellent use of its beautiful natural setting, weaving in many distinctive features of wildlife, geography and outdoor pursuits such as kayaking. That said, the book is rather formulaic. Dana and Luke are, of course, gorgeous; also of course, Dana doesn’t realize how beautiful she is. Dana’s childhood trauma, while unquestionably sympathetic, has become one of the biggest clichés in novel writing. Plot points can be seen coming a mile away: When Luke wonders how he can possibly put his feelings into words, the reader can guess he’ll write a song. Everything is smooth and easy. Dana and Luke disagree on nothing, have no annoying habits, never worry about money. The Alaskan winter is too far away.
Overly neat and calling on too many tropes, this novel offers wish fulfillment without nuance or complexity.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0990922322
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Aleutika Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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