An engaging addition to the coming-of-age genre with slow pacing.
In this novel, a young girl copes with an unstable home life and the raucous rodeo world.
Annie Butler lives in Emerald City, Oregon, in the 1940s and ’50s, and she tries her best to thrive in the tumultuous rodeo world. Annie feels like the black sheep of the family. Her mother, Linda, is a rodeo star—sexy and skillful and caring more about her career than her daughter. Annie’s grandmother Mam casually abuses her most of the time. Her Uncle Jack is an angry, violent man who is hellbent on Annie’s bearing the brunt of his bitterness. No one seems to care much when Annie is sexually assaulted by an older girl. Despite her turbulent situation, Annie embraces rodeo life, particularly after traveling with her mother to shows. After getting her first horse, Genie, Annie even wins an event at a show. Later, when her mother gives up riding and Annie hears that her first crush was gored by a bull, the rodeo’s fast-paced culture starts troubling her. Annie is growing up, and, at only 13 years old, she tries to figure out her blossoming romantic feelings for some of the men around her. Interspersed with scenes from 1999, when Annie is at her family’s ranch looking back on her adolescence, Clayton Van’s novel, the first in a series, is strongest when it leans into the coming-of-age aspects of Annie’s life, particularly as she navigates the new, intense feelings she has as a teenager. One scene, when Annie and her friend Margie Delaunay practice kissing, is especially well crafted, highlighting the childlike curiosity of Annie alongside her desire to explore and her resulting confusion. But the tale feels almost exhaustive—nearly every moment of Annie’s childhood is unnecessarily dissected. This often causes the prose to be somewhat repetitive and throws the pacing off, with Annie only 10 halfway through the tale. Still, Annie is a resilient protagonist, which is admirable, though it can be tough to read about a child experiencing some of the trials she endures. The rodeo setting provides a fresh take on the bildungsroman.
An engaging addition to the coming-of-age genre with slow pacing.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-335-6
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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