A debut novel of the ’60s that becomes more engaging as the pages turn.
Madden’s novel celebrates the Ohio River Valley in the 1960s and follows the intersecting lives of two young locals as they grow into adulthood.
Steubenville and Mingo Junction, Ohio, are towns dominated by Wheeling Steel. Jack Clark is the oldest child in a large, loving Irish Catholic family; his father, Tom, tried to escape Steubenville, but fate brought him back home and he took a job in the steel mill. Laurie Carmine’s Italian family is more well-to-do; her father took advantage of the G.I. Bill and became a doctor. The Clarks live right on the river; the Carmines live well away from it. However, Jack and Carmine meet in seventh grade in parochial school; shy Jack is smitten with Laurie right off the bat. The narrative tells their stories, but especially Jack’s: his school friends and his doubts, his striving in high school sports (a very big deal), and his dreams for the future. A keen sense of time and place is present, featuring such elements as the songs that the teens danced to; Jack’s first car, a Plymouth Valiant; the Vietnam War; the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963; and the 1968 spring that claimed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and any innocence America had left. Do Jack and Laurie finally triumph as their love grows and deepens? To Madden’s credit, he keeps readers guessing in that regard; Jack goes missing in action in Vietnam, Laurie marries someone else, and that’s just for starters. A disclaimer tries to separate history from fiction, but it also notes that Jack’s life shares strong similarities with Madden’s. The book gets off to an awkwardly expository start with a scene of Laurie’s father laying out the whole Carmine family history at their Thanksgiving dinner. Soon, however, the story takes over and gingerly coexists with bits of local lore that the author seems proud to include, along with uncredited black-and-white photographs of various locations mentioned in the book, as well as footnotes.
A debut novel of the ’60s that becomes more engaging as the pages turn.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2023
ISBN: 9798987066812
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Potomac Publishing Company
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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