An engaging, nuanced female awakening journey in the West.
On a trip to Wyoming, a divorced mother finds romance with a younger cowboy in this debut novel.
Divorced mom Kate Marino, 36, works at her dad’s St. Louis car dealership. She is astounded when her father, fed lies by jealous older brother James, accuses her of sleeping with clients and even doing drugs. The incident finally spurs Kate to take time off with her son, Sam, soon to enter kindergarten, and travel out West. Her father, the family member seemingly most traumatized by the years-earlier death of another brother (older than James) on the family’s Missouri farm, journeys with them part of the way. Then Kate and Sam arrive at Prickly Pear Ranch in Wyoming, and her life transforms. Ranch hand Jake McComb, 13 years her junior, is drawn to her, and they begin an intense love affair. Once her trip is over, Kate continues to commute between St. Louis and Wyoming to be with Jake, although their relationship has its ups and downs. The myriad challenges they encounter include Jake’s demanding new job at another ranch in a desolate town, where an attractive woman more age-appropriate for the cowboy lurks. Still, Kate buys wedding rings and then rents and makes moves to buy her own Wyoming cabin so that the couple can be together and she can pursue the painting and photography that she abandoned at her father’s insistence she join his business. Will Kate and Jake eventually find happiness together? Hennessey has crafted a narrative that effectively builds on the tropes of chick-lit and cowboy romance to take some deeper turns. While some of the main characters’ actions may disappoint romance fans, the author deftly presents the couple’s struggles with flaws and damage from their pasts throughout the tale (“Kate had seen a therapist, with appointments as frequent as her every-other-week manicures, but they seemed to be of little help”). This makes the plot’s last-act complications part of an established context. Additionally, Kate’s attempts to come to peace with her art and her new life out West ultimately come off as heartwarming as well as profound.
An engaging, nuanced female awakening journey in the West.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-943006-03-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Spark Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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