A spectacular and addictive family tale that’s equal parts charm and depth.
A TV presenter navigates her relationship with her hoarder mother in this novel.
Sarah Percy is a 30-year-old New Yorker with a tidy career plan and a strong fan base. Still, life isn’t nearly as easy as Sarah makes it sound in her “Sarah Says” lifestyle advice segment on Good Morning New York. Back in suburban Philadelphia, Sarah’s mother, Debbie, struggles with hoarding British royal family tchotchkes and memorabilia dating back to Prince Charles’ wedding to Diana Spencer. It’s a decadeslong issue that’s wreaked havoc on Debbie’s safety—she has to clear paths to get through the house—and, more significantly, on her relationships with her three adult children. When Sarah’s younger brother, Will, lands an associate producer position on the popular hoarder intervention show Stuff, he promises the higher-ups he will convince Debbie to star in an episode. Sarah takes time off to assist with the segment—much to the chagrin of her new boss, who is all too eager to replace her with the latest Bachelor runner-up. Sarah finds herself reluctantly enamored with the handsome, empathetic Stuff showrunner and host, Pierce Thompson. Meanwhile, Debbie takes stock of her house full of possessions, reflecting on how one drink with a charming stranger while studying abroad in 1981 London got her to this point, lonely and clinging to the past in her home. The impressive and enjoyable novel alternates between Debbie’s and Sarah’s points of view, giving sensitive perspectives of a hoarder who can’t stop shopping and the effects it’s had on her loved ones. Contino never reverts to reality TV stereotypes of a very real psychological issue, instead exploring the complex origins of Debbie’s compulsion, including an ill-fated shotgun marriage with a very sad end. But there’s plenty of genuine humor in the story, not to mention an abundance of love, as Sarah and her two siblings, twins Will and Anne, band together to repair their broken family once and for all.
A spectacular and addictive family tale that’s equal parts charm and depth.Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-948018-99-9
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
