by KB Schaller ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A sprawling yet intimate kidnapping tale with a strong mix of action and character development.
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A woman becomes torn between her husband and a man from her past as she uncovers a dangerous scheme in this third installment of a series.
After a tumultuous adolescence, Dina Youngblood, a striking Seminole/Cherokee beauty, is married to evangelist Aaron Burning Rain. They reside in the Bitterroot Confederacy of Indians, coexisting with colorful neighbors (“A male alligator—halpatee, in what Uncle Donnie called ‘Seminole talk’—sounded his love song from a nearby waterway”). Aaron is devoted to Dina and planned to raise the son fathered by her former lover, Marty Osceola, as his own; but the child, whom they named Aaron Jr., was stillborn. While running errands, she meets a stranger who gives her an unsettling gift—a set of receiving blankets. Following a series of bizarre encounters with the figure, she learns that her son was kidnapped at birth by a criminal network and is still alive. While she searches for the truth, her husband reconnects with a former prayer partner named Nate Bush who has a mentoring program called Trail to the Stars that he wants Aaron and Dina to endorse. Dina is skeptical and soon realizes her son’s abduction is connected to the program. When Marty suddenly returns, Dina discovers that he may ultimately be the key to locating her child. In clear, engaging prose, Schaller (100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, 2014, etc.) brings to life Dina and her quest to find out what happened to her son. One of the novel’s major strengths is its detailed setting and depiction of life on the Bitterroot reservation. The author offers an incisive and compassionate view of Bitterroot and the hopes and dreams of the people who call it home. The well-developed central characters include Dina and her great-grandmother Mama Hat. The mystery surrounding Dina’s son leads to a complex web of intrigue that’s suspenseful and deftly plotted. Schaller’s subplots are equally well-crafted. One of the most poignant comes in the form of Mama Hat’s journal entries about a young woman named Noccalula. Although this is the third novel in the series, the author provides enough back story to help newcomers understand the characters and their intricate relationships.
A sprawling yet intimate kidnapping tale with a strong mix of action and character development.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4809-4105-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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