Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.
A fraternal bond is stressed beyond the breaking point in this heartfelt, if initially slow-moving, coming-home story.
High school senior Chase Peterson, whose first name may or may not refer to the title, is determined to join the Marines after graduating high school. Never mind the offer of a track scholarship from an Iowa university, or the parental pleas to accept it. And never mind the increasingly disturbing behavior of his brother, Danny, a Marine Corps corporal who returned from Afghanistan with mental wounds vastly worse than his physical wounds. Chase intends to enlist when he turns 18 regardless of anything his friends and family say. The reason for his determination, though plausible, is withheld until the end of the book, which raises the question of how plausible it is that Chase hasn’t been pressed to reveal the reason earlier in the story. Perhaps to address this arguably significant problem, Schulteis has Chase pointing out that he didn’t mention it earlier because “no one has ever asked me straight up.” The folks who haven’t bothered to ask, Chase adds, include his track coach, his mother and father, his girlfriends and his best friend. Beyond that, there’s no debate about his pending decision to enlist, not to mention a debate about the virtuousness of the Afghan war itself, which robs the first two-thirds of the story of significantly greater tension. Otherwise, much of the plot is devoted to increasing concerns about Danny’s anger and drinking, as well as the usual high school angst involving boredom and romantic longings. Olga Gutierrez, the girl who gradually becomes the focus of Chase’s longings, is particularly compelling, and the eventual explanation of her brother’s death in war-related circumstances provides a poignant revelation during the prolonged, powerful denouement.
Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484046968
Page Count: 220
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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