An uplifting tale about family, second chances, and the complexity of making fine Texas wine.
After the death of her husband, a young woman moves back to her hometown to build a new life for herself and her children in this novel.
Lark Mead has just lost her husband to Lou Gehrig’s disease and is faced with the daunting task of raising their two sons on her own. When a real estate broker comes calling soon after her husband’s death, Lark is offended. But after learning how much the house is worth, she decides that a return to her hometown may just be the fresh start her family needs. When she arrives back in Fredericksburg, Texas, she finds a newly renovated, not-so-child-friendly house and grandparents that are very busy with lives of their own. Lark begins searching for employment, but there aren’t many jobs for attorneys in town, and she’s not that interested in the law anyway. Instead, she decides to pursue a career in winemaking, a dream she had long ago given up. As Lark reconnects with old friends and attempts to navigate single motherhood, she meets a handsome, young Army veteran named Wyatt Gifford. As Lark and Wyatt get to know each other, she learns he has emotional baggage of his own, and she begins to doubt their compatibility. As the story progresses, Lark wonders whether she will ever figure out how to find a promising future. Told primarily from Lark’s point of view, the narrative shifts periodically to Wyatt’s perspective, providing readers a useful second lens through which to view events. Full of humorous moments about the pitfalls of parenting, including kids who say inappropriate things at the worst times and catty parent volunteers who attempt to commandeer school events, this plot-focused tale also explores deeper issues like grief, PTSD, and self-sufficiency. Although Clink’s series opener gets off to a slow start, introducing too many subplots and supporting characters before focusing on the main action, individual scenes are well crafted throughout, and relationships consistently come across as authentic. A few surprises toward the story’s end make it a worthwhile read.
An uplifting tale about family, second chances, and the complexity of making fine Texas wine.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68463-073-8
Page Count: 376
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
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
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