Standard-issue Deveraux (The Mulberry Tree, etc.): multiplying complications, confusing cast of thousands, and rambling...
Who—or what—has been crushing people to death in small-town Cole Creek, North Carolina? An inqisitive mystery writer moves south to find out.
Ford Newcombe made a fortune on his first book, thanks to his quick-witted wife, Pat, whose death from cancer afterward wasn’t the first tragedy in her family. Her father had gone blind and her mother was killed by a drunk driver. Ford would sell his soul if he could rewrite the past . . . but he can’t. A few years later, Jackie, a sexy young spitfire from the South, becomes his assistant. They have a lot in common: both grew up in poverty, and she spent some of her childhood in Cole Creek with her daddy, though she never knew her momma, who disappeared. As they swap stories, Jackie tells him the local legend of a woman’s skeleton found under a stone wall, and Ford is intrigued. Pressing people under heaps of rocks was a centuries-old punishment for witches: Is there a devil in their midst? Are some of the inhabitants of Cole Creek able to speak to Old Scratch? And what does Jackie mean when she says she can “see” evil? Well, back to Jackie, as she runs into handsome stranger Russell Dunne, who hints that he knows something about the woman under the wall. But what could it be? Ford and Jackie discover that Abraham, patriarch of the Cole family, was crushed under a gravel truck. And Harriet Cole, killed in a car that careened down a mountain—and there are so many other strange deaths. So many subplots. Ford and Jackie seem to be falling in love, though the mysterious Russell Dunne is making eyes at her, too. And why is it that only she can see him?
Standard-issue Deveraux (The Mulberry Tree, etc.): multiplying complications, confusing cast of thousands, and rambling storyline.Pub Date: April 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-7434-3712-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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