A knotty, engaging tale of lost hope and lonely nights.
An elderly woman remembers her romantic difficulties during the 1960s in this novel.
Cassie Mae Carter is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, raising a sickly son in Duck Springs, Georgia, nearly on her own, as her long-haul truck driver husband is so rarely at home. Paul Hamilton is a handsome and rakish construction worker who loves to be outside, to use his hands, and to enjoy the freedom of independence. When Paul joins a crew that is expanding a portion of road adjacent to Cassie’s farmhouse, both their lives are changed forever. After admiring Cassie from afar, Paul finally finds the nerve to approach her when he sees her tussling with a wayward calf on the farm. After playing hero to this damsel in distress, Paul finds he cannot stay away from her. Following a few more interactions, Cassie and Paul acknowledge their undeniable attraction to each other, and they begin devising clandestine ways to meet. Paul finds himself falling deeply in love with Cassie, experiencing emotions that are foreign to him but exhilarating just the same. Unfortunately, Cassie feels that divorce is not an option for her, and she knows that she and Paul will have no future together. During one of their many meetings, she asks him to give her a child so that she may have something to remember him, a piece of him to keep with her after his road crew departs. Paul struggles with this request and mourns the doomed nature of their relationship. As Jones (Lonely Magnolia, 2017, etc.) effectively creates one obstacle after another for Cassie and Paul, he also explores deeper questions about personal choices and the different forms that love takes. Although the story is ostensibly told by Cassie, most of the narrative flows from Paul’s point of view. Even so, this fast-paced novel deftly tackles complicated questions of sacrifice, loyalty, and grief while keeping the suspense high until the story’s final twist. This book should especially appeal to fans of star-crossed romances.
A knotty, engaging tale of lost hope and lonely nights.Pub Date: July 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9743790-2-9
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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