A novel that makes wonderful use of its historical setting to create an evocative portrait of a woman torn by grief and...
In Jewell’s debut novel, a woman grieving her son’s death in the first world war meets a magnetic preacher who unbalances her marriage.
For farm wife Isabel Fuller, life is an almost continuous round of daily chores: baking, cleaning, laundering, feeding the hens, doing dishes and caring for her husband and three boys. When she does have time to relax and think, Isabel can take little pleasure in it; she still mourns the loss of her son, Carl, who died in the Great War, and harbors anger toward her husband, who encouraged him to sign up. But Isabel is a good, thoughtful woman, the kind who will allow Pentecostal preacher Micah Kane to set up a revival space in her pecan grove because “I can’t seem to say no to anyone looking for the Lord—whether I think they’re looking in the right place or not.” She helps protect Caroline, a young girl left motherless, from her abusive father, Piggott. Both gestures have unintended consequences. From the first, Micah stirs up Isabel with the intensity of his desire. She tries to resist, but his sympathetic attention to her and her grief unlocks something. When they first make love, it’s in Carl’s room, and they talk about Carl afterward. Further conflict arises when Piggott tries to make trouble for the lovers. “Nobody believes it,” says Isabel’s husband, Edward. “Nobody but me.” As Isabel finds ways to be with Micah, her marriage grows colder. Ultimately, Isabel must decide to what degree to give in to her desires. Jewell achieves a beautifully specific portrait of a grieving woman. The era and settings come to life with well-observed details, whether “shouting ‘whoa’ instead of putting on the brakes” in Carl’s first car, or describing Isabel’s cellar shelves, “filled with jars of herbs, tomatoes, corn, beans, okra, pickles, apples, peaches and jelly.” Also lively are the erotic scenes, which have a real charge, especially set against the careful detailing of Isabel’s ordinary existence.
A novel that makes wonderful use of its historical setting to create an evocative portrait of a woman torn by grief and awakened by desire.Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 236
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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