An engaging tale about single fatherhood and a new love hampered by an underdeveloped plot.
A successful Hollywood screenwriter’s attempt at dating becomes complicated by his profoundly spoiled daughter in this novel.
Eighteen long years have passed since Joe has had a date. The single father has been raising his daughter, Sofia, while nurturing a career as a top-dollar screenwriter. He has settled into a life of writing movie scripts, enjoying pizza and beer, and doting on his skittish, overindulged child. But success leaves a lot to be desired. Sofia was an awful teenager who was so disrespectful to her Bronx grandparents that they became estranged from her. She has moved out, and Joe is giving her money to support herself and take acting classes. Worryingly, Joe has some swollen lymph nodes, so he visits his doctor, fearing the worst. But there is a positive side to the incident, as Joe meets a striking nurse named Jennifer, a bright and charming transplant from Kentucky (“I couldn’t believe that this goddess, whose figure could re-energize a corpse, would be escorting me to radiology”). As the two go out for half-price margaritas, the ice age that is Joe’s love life begins to thaw. He is impressed with her career specializing in pediatric oncology, her thrift, and her authenticity. The two quickly fall in love, but there are soon problems with Sofia, who does not react well to Jennifer. Undaunted, Jennifer assures Joe that she can get his daughter back to her old self. As Joe suspects Sofia may be struggling with something more serious than just being self-centered, he asks her to move back home. At the same time, Jennifer moves in. The three quickly develop a new pattern, which could leave Joe sitting on the sidelines. Sciuto’s (Per Verse Vengeance, 2018, etc.) entertaining novel has a perfectly sympathetic protagonist whose relatively small Studio City world revolves around secure, familiar patterns that give Joe a comfortable but incomplete life. It’s a lighthearted tale in some ways, with playfulness and wit in good supply, but the addition of a pediatric oncology nurse gives the story added depth. While the narrative moves quickly, the lack of a clear central conflict becomes problematic. The characters’ lifestyle changes happen fairly early on, and the almost flat story arc makes the ending point seem randomly chosen.
An engaging tale about single fatherhood and a new love hampered by an underdeveloped plot.Pub Date: June 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77180-352-6
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Iguana Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2019
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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