An uplifting story of love and gratitude—not to mention frustration, fear, and failure—in all forms of family.
A 35-year-old Cape Cod bookstore owner is contacted by the son she gave up for adoption, and in being found by him, she finds herself.
When Harlow Smith was 17 and in her first year of college, within the span of a month she started dating her first boyfriend, lost her virginity, and got pregnant. She made the extremely tough decision to have the baby—she dubbed him Matthew, her “little pal”—and give him up for adoption to Sanjay and Monica Patel when he was just a few minutes old. And she kept the entire thing a secret from her parents, siblings, and grandparents. Fast-forward almost 18 years, and a teenager who looks exactly like her brother comes into her bookstore. Harlow faints, much commotion ensues, and it turns out that Matthew has not only found her, but he's convinced his parents to rent a house on Cape Cod for their summer vacation without their knowing he’d tracked down his birth mother. What follows is a story about incredibly complicated emotions: Monica’s love and anger and fear for her son as he tries to learn everything he can about his birth mother and her love for her daughter, Meena, with whom she unexpectedly became pregnant when Matthew was very young. Harlow’s love for the son she gave away but thought about every day. Her parents' love for her, and their utter confusion about how she could have gone through something so incredibly hard entirely alone. Her 90-year-old Grandpop’s unwavering love and support of her even as he sees the extreme pressure she puts on herself. And her friend Rosie’s unquestioning love for her, and hers for Rosie. And, not to be left out among the multitude of other family members who are part of this story, Harlow’s childhood friend Grady’s love for his 4-year-old daughter, Luna, and Harlow’s growing feelings for him.
An uplifting story of love and gratitude—not to mention frustration, fear, and failure—in all forms of family.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780593547618
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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