Suspense at the expense of credibility.
A surrogate-for-hire runs for her life in the latest from Wall (A Good Man, 2005, etc.).
Jamie Long is desperate. Orphaned at six and estranged from her half-sister, the college dropout is mired in credit-card debt incurred while nursing her dying grandmother. An ad answers her prayers, offering $100,000 and a lifetime income to bear a child for gorgeous, pushing-50 televangelist Amanda Hartmann. The secrecy surrounding her artificial insemination with sperm from Amanda’s current gigolo/husband/personal trainer Toby is normal, she is assured by the Hartmanns’ lawyer. So is Jamie’s isolation at the family ranch in a remote stretch of the Texas Panhandle. Housekeeper Montgomery handles all of Jamie’s correspondence with the outside world—or not. Amanda’s diminutive brother Gus, a kingpin who runs the Hartmann oil/Christian Voter Alliance/lobbying enterprises with Soprano-like ruthlessness, reluctantly endorses Amanda’s scheme to fake pregnancy so that her devotees will assume she has birthed her own miracle child. The inseminating sperm was actually harvested from Amanda’s son, who was supposedly killed in an ATV accident but is actually in a vegetative state, being kept alive in a secluded tower of the ranch. Nearby lies supposedly bedridden matriarch Mary Millicent, Amanda’s predecessor in charismatic preaching. Secretly ambulatory and thoroughly versed in the generational curses of the Hartmanns, Mary sneaks out to warn Jamie that once Amanda “delivers,” the presence of the surrogate will be considered problematic. And Gus has no scruples about eliminating problems—like Amanda’s first husband, for instance. Jamie flees, has her baby alone and goes on the lam. After a near-kidnapping, she reunites with childhood crush Joe, making for a steamy sex-on-the-beach scene with no babysitter in evidence. Handily evading Gus’s thugs, Jamie and Joe call Amanda’s bluff in public and hope she’s more susceptible to scandal than most televangelists. By then, the plot’s banality has surpassed even the conventions of melodrama, with no redeeming depth of character.
Suspense at the expense of credibility.Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7432-5851-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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