Intriguing and well-crafted but frustratingly slow.
A young woman skilled in astral projection falls in love while a secret war brews in this urban paranormal fantasy novel.
Sophia Walsh, 25, is in her fourth year as an “astral projection specialist” at San Diego Consulting Corporation in the Psi Solutions Division. She uses her paranormal abilities mostly for government clients, to help collect intelligence, rescue hostages, and find missing persons. Sophia also has some telepathy and occasional precognitive dreams, though it’s her twin brother, Thomas, who’s the real telepath. A new employee at SDCC is Nate Barclay, best friend of Sophia’s ex-fiance. The two soon feel a strong mutual attraction that becomes deep and passionate. Meanwhile, though, tragedy strikes when Sophia’s mentor is murdered. Disturbing evidence arises that someone has been interfering with Sophia’s and other psychics’ precognitive abilities while also placing them under electronic surveillance; suspicion falls on John, boyfriend to Sophia’s best friend and co-worker, Diana. Telepathic and other investigation reveals John had disguised his true identity and is part of a mysterious organization. A confrontation with him yields explosive information about a secret worldwide power struggle brewing among psychics—but are Sophia and friends on the right side of it, and can John be trusted? In her debut novel, Greenhall combines steamy, well-written romance with intelligently handled paranormal and thriller elements. Scenes of Sophia at work are especially effective, giving readers insight into the several ways her gift provides essential information. It makes sense that other, shadowy forces might be arrayed against official government contractors, and Greenhall sets several factors into play: An innovative gamma-ray headset, for example, could prove vital. But, perhaps because future books in the series are planned, many pages are spent on inessential details. Also, despite their abilities, Sophia and Nate are cut from the standard romantic cloth: two hot young people hot for each other with conventional obstacles (she’s guarded; he’s quick to be jealous). Their erotic relationship is the book’s centerpiece but far less interesting than the barely-getting-started thriller plot.
Intriguing and well-crafted but frustratingly slow.Pub Date: March 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9998166-0-8
Page Count: 329
Publisher: Forward Progress Media, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2018
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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