A satisfying romance for gardeners and music lovers alike.
Reconciliation and romance flower in this latest installment of a multigenerational family saga set on a lavender farm in the Texas Hill Country.
Fish returns to Comfort, Texas, for her follow-up to Comfort Plans (2017). When 35-year-old Luke English, a recording company executive in Nashville, discovers that award-winning country singer July Sands is retiring at the age of 53, he decides to track her down and convince her to change her mind. But when he arrives at Lavender Hill nursery, run by July’s 29-year old daughter, AJ, he meets opposition, as the younger woman is determined to protect her mom and help her heal from three decades on the road. She’s also coping with her own issues; her ex-boyfriend left her struggling with debt, and her elderly grandmother, Inez Worthington, is having difficulties due to encroaching dementia. Inez is the mother of July’s ex-husband, Roger, and she believes that that her son is a far more talented singer that July is; July and Roger used to perform together. Luke’s mission is made more difficult when Roger arrives at the homestead, as well. Fish’s expressive prose vividly evokes the family conflicts, the hard work of running Lavender Hills, and the colors and scents of the Texas landscape. She threads themes of creativity, self-fulfillment, and healing throughout the narrative and complements them with gardening tips from Lessons from Lavender Hill, the book-within-a-book that AJ has been working on. The characters are well drawn and complex, especially the likable AJ, who struggles to reconcile her growing attraction to Luke with her loyalty to her family and her business responsibilities. She finally realizes that recovery is a process that takes time—much like the patient work of gardening. Flashbacks to Inez’s long-ago romance with Roger’s father in the 1950s add poignancy, and the impact of dementia on the family provides additional depth.
A satisfying romance for gardeners and music lovers alike.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73233-865-4
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing, twisty-turny tale of family secrets that comes just short of the bullseye.
A Cape Cod woman’s life is turned upside down by unexpected developments.
A year ago, Frankie Attleboro’s mother died at age 52 and the family fell apart. Frankie’s father, famous scientist Mack Attleboro, who had always been a distant figure in his children’s lives, was adrift. Frankie fled the Cape, throwing herself into her work as a nature photographer and leaving her brother, Penn, to hold things together. Now engaged and pregnant, she’s excited to share her news when she gets a text from her father asking her to come right away. Worried, she rushes home only to discover that her father is also engaged—to her childhood best friend, Ariel. Who is also heavily pregnant. As Frankie deals with her complicated feelings and her father’s complete lack of understanding of them, Ariel’s mother, Carlotta, who left when the girls were teenagers, shows up unannounced and ready to ingratiate herself back into Ariel’s life. Mitchard’s tone walks a fine line: Is everything dramatic because there’s actually a sinister edge to affairs, or is Frankie just having trouble dealing with things? Though each plot twist makes everything slightly more ludicrous in a way that would feel silly in another book, Frankie’s reactions and emotions ground the story, so the book can focus not on how absolutely absurd things are but on how one person’s words and actions can affect everyone around them. The novel’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t know if it wants to be a thriller or a family drama and never fully commits to one or the other. Mitchard is deft enough to create a rewarding read, but the book could have used a bit more mystery.
An intriguing, twisty-turny tale of family secrets that comes just short of the bullseye.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9780778369370
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Light on suspense but still a solid page-turner.
When a devoted husband and father disappears, his wife and daughter set out to find him.
Hannah Hall is deeply in love with her husband of one year, Owen Michaels. She’s also determined to win over his 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, who has made it very clear that she’s not thrilled with her new stepmother. Despite the drama, the family is mostly a happy one. They live in a lovely houseboat in Sausalito; Hannah is a woodturner whose handmade furniture brings in high-dollar clientele; and Owen works for The Shop, a successful tech firm. Their lives are shattered, however, when Hannah receives a note saying “Protect her” and can’t reach Owen by phone. Then there’s the bag full of cash Bailey finds in her school locker and the shocking news that The Shop’s CEO has been taken into custody. Hannah learns that the FBI has been investigating the firm for about a year regarding some hot new software they took to market before it was fully functional, falsifying their financial statements. Hannah refuses to believe her husband is involved in the fraud, and a U.S. marshal assigned to the case claims Owen isn’t a suspect. Hannah doesn’t know whom to trust, though, and she and Bailey resolve to root out the clues that might lead to Owen. They must also learn to trust one another. Hannah’s narrative alternates past and present, detailing her early days with Owen alongside her current hunt for him, and author Dave throws in a touch of danger and a few surprises. But what really drives the story is the evolving nature of Hannah and Bailey’s relationship, which is by turns poignant and frustrating but always realistic.
Light on suspense but still a solid page-turner.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5011-7134-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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