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The Fountain At Ugalini's

Name: The Fountain At Ugalini's
Author: Jose Saco
ISBN: 978-1483931050

ILLICIT LIAISONS, VOLUME 2

by Jose Saco Richard Read ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2013

An often slow-paced tale, but one with an engaging protagonist.

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Saco’s (Illicit Liaisons—Volume 1, 2013) second novel about a high school girl coming of age in a sexually hostile world.

Sixteen-year-old Megan Morgan is like most teenagers, save for the fact that she recently halted a consensual sexual relationship with her uncle. As the story begins, she tries to cope with the end of that relationship and live a more normal life. With her mother recently back home from rehab, things are looking up. But Megan doesn’t know that there’s another sexually troubling event in her future—one that will be anything but consensual. After an exclusive party at a wealthy student’s house, where she fought off sexual advances, experimented with marijuana and masturbated in a hot tub, Megan finds herself alone, outside, without her car keys. She accepts a ride home from a seedy student, which leads to an attempted rape. After she escapes, thanks to her own resourcefulness, she lands in an even worse situation: a brutal sexual assault that leaves her beaten and violated. As Megan tries to regain her composure and ensure that justice is done, she longs for what she sees as simpler days, including her relationship with her uncle. Throughout, the book balances the explicit and the mundane. Periods of explicit sex (“Gus’ head was buried between mother’s thighs”) are followed by long periods of inactivity. An uneventful trip to a swim meet, for example, results in stodgy dialogue, as when Megan’s friend explains her interest in various colleges (“I had it narrowed down to Pitt or Penn State. They both have strong programs in the course of study I want to pursue”), and readers may find these sections egregiously slow. That said, the action scenes help to create a twisted, believable tale, as Megan encounters new aspects of a darkly adult world. The conclusion will leave many readers eager for the next volume.

An often slow-paced tale, but one with an engaging protagonist.

Pub Date: April 21, 2013

ISBN: 978-1483931050

Page Count: 804

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.