Part love story, part thriller, this novel will appeal to fans of Hollywood and May-December romance.
A down-on-her luck young woman meets and quickly marries a famed Hollywood producer even though he's 41 years her senior.
Twenty-six-year-old Advika Srinivasan has long dreamed of being a screenwriter, but after her twin sister dies in an accident, she gives up. Instead of making the movies she always imagined, she works for a catering company, tending bar at A-list parties. At one of these events she's approached by Julian Zelding, a sexy movie producer who's just won his fifth Oscar. In his late 60s, he’s much older than Advika, but when he makes clear his romantic intentions, she finds herself smitten. After a whirlwind courtship, the two quickly marry. Still grieving her sister’s death and her parents’ subsequent relocation to India, Advika is relieved to have someone who is so committed to her again. Unfortunately, shortly after they tie the knot, Advika begins to discover disconcerting tidbits about Julian’s relationships with his three former wives. She wonders if she’s made a terrible mistake and whether she'll ever be able to escape him. Told in a close third-person voice, the novel follows Advika as she tries to learn more about Julian by examining the lives of his exes. Full of details about everything that makes Hollywood both magical and frighteningly powerful, the story also highlights how much it meant to Advika to see Indian characters in a film in her youth and how deeply she cares about bringing greater diversity to the industry. The author also creates a complex and nuanced character in Julian, whose motivation and agenda seem to provoke more questions than answers. At times, there is a frustrating lack of clarity as Ramisetti chooses to keep from ever explaining certain aspects of Julian’s behavior. Conversely, there are times when an abundance of unnecessary details interrupts the pace of the narrative. Even so, the underlying premise of this unique story is sufficiently beguiling that readers will keep turning pages in their hurry to find out how it all ends.
Part love story, part thriller, this novel will appeal to fans of Hollywood and May-December romance.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781538709276
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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