Keep your friends close and these four aunties closer.
Another wild wedding day befalls the Chan family in Sutanto’s wacky sequel to Dial A for Aunties (2021).
Almost a year after Meddy Chan and her four aunties covered up an accidental murder, Meddy can’t wait to have a fresh start by marrying her dream guy, Nathan, at Oxford's Christ Church College. He’s the “perfect specimen of a man” according to her Ma, yet even with their wedding day rapidly approaching, Meddy can’t help but feel like their union is too good to be true. To make matters worse, her “batty” aunties have yet to meet Nathan’s prim-and-proper English parents, and they’ve started using British slang like “dog’s bollocks” in hopes of impressing Chris and Annie. To further appease Meddy’s wedding jitters, her aunties hire the Tanuwijayas, an Indonesian family of wedding vendors who handle flowers, hair, makeup, and photography—score! Meddy finds a kindred spirit in photographer Staphanie, and they become fast friends after bonding over misspelled names and pepper spray. Their friendship proves to be short-lived, however, when Meddy overhears a phone conversation in which Staphanie agrees to take someone out…and not as a plus one. It turns out Staph and her family are in the organized crime business, and their next target happens to be a guest at the Chan wedding. When Staphanie threatens to expose last year’s accident to the police, Meddy and her aunties embark on a madcap, Sopranos-style series of hijinks in order to stop the Tanuwijayas’ plan in its tracks. With plenty of weed-spiked champagne and gags made of pantyhose, these four aunties make it known: Don’t mess with the Chan family. Sutanto’s sequel doubles the trouble for Meddy and Co., but it is not without some frustrating moments (Meddy is basically MIA for her entire wedding). Despite the continual shenanigans, you can't help but get a kick out of the aunties' outrageous stunts and their even bigger hearts.
Keep your friends close and these four aunties closer.Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-44076-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.
A news presenter and a police detective are brought together by murders in the British village where they both grew up.
There is precious little that can be revealed about the plot of Feeney’s third novel without spoilers, as the author has woven surprises and plot twists and suspicious linkages into nearly every one of her brief, first-person chapters, written in three alternating narrative voices. “Hers” is Anna Andrews, a wannabe anchor on a BBC news program whose lucky break comes when the body of one of her school friends is found brutally murdered in their hometown, a woodsy little spot called Blackdown. “His” is DCI Jack Harper, head of the Major Crime Team in Blackdown, where major crimes were rather few until now. The third is unnamed but clearly the killer’s. Happily, none of the three is an unreliable narrator—good thing because plenty of people are sick of that—but none is exactly 100% forthcoming either. Which only makes sense, because you can't have reveals without secrets. In a small town like Blackdown, everybody knows everybody, so it’s not too surprising that Anna and Jack have a tragic past or that each has connections to all the victims and suspects while not being totally free from suspicion themselves. Who is that sneaky third narrator? On the way to figuring that out, expect high school mean girls, teen lesbian action, mutilated corpses, nasty things happening to kittens, and—as seems de rigueur in British thrillers—plenty of drinking and wisecracks, sometimes in tandem. “Sadly, my sister has the same taste in wine as she does in men; too cheap, too young, and headache-inducing.”
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26608-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
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