A tentative romance that’s strengthened by complex characterization.
A teenager falls into an unexpected relationship with her father’s friend in Tirado-Ryen’s novel.
Connie Baltimore is an 18-year-old in her last year of high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, when her life gets shaken up in the year 2000. Her grandmother has flown in from Jamaica to stay with the family until Connie’s graduation, and Connie’s older sister, Alison, has also moved back home following a terrible fight with her husband. In addition, her dad’s recentlywidowed, 35-year-old friend Nicholas Riley has been invited to live with them for a few months until he gets back on his feet; he hasn’t worked as a journalist since his wife’s death. Connie has never been in love, nor has she ever had a serious boyfriend, but she soon finds herself connecting with Nick and falling into a slow-burn romance that makes up much of the plot. The narrative places a lot of emphasis on the age difference between the two main characters, with both resisting the possibility of a relationship; Nick is given to phrases such as “If I was ten years younger…,” and Connie refers the idea of her having a crush on him as “perverted.” In addition, strangers mistake the couple as a father and daughter. Outside the romance plot, however, the Baltimore family comes across as complex and real, and the complicated dynamics of Connie’s relationship with her best friend, Dee Ramsey, offer a heartfelt examination of growing older and growing apart. The work succeeds as a coming-of-age story, but it’s one that never quite decides how it wants readers to perceive the main couple. Because of that, some may find it hard to connect to the romantic element of the story. Connie is a charming enough character to keep the story afloat, however.
A tentative romance that’s strengthened by complex characterization.Pub Date: July 10, 2023
ISBN: 9798989684946
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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