An often engaging tale, but stronger editing might have turned it into a gem.
Two adrenaline junkies meet during a shark-research expedition in McCaffrey’s (The Bluebird, 2016, etc.) adventure novel with more than a hint of romance.
At 26, Grace Mann has a doctorate, works as a researcher for the California Marine Institute, and is famous, to boot, after a photograph of her free diving with a great white shark goes viral. Her latest expedition takes her to Guadalupe Island, near the Baja California peninsula, to tag great whites and test out a sonar array to track them; Grace also looks forward to free diving with sharks some more. Alec Galloway joins the team as a documentary filmmaker, and immediately, he and Grace are drawn to each other. But as Alec’s feelings for Grace grow, so does his concern for her safety. And as the danger of her underwater encounters ramps up, so do tensions on the boat. Meanwhile, a film distributor linked to the expedition wants more footage of bloody shark encounters; Grace’s ex-boyfriend, Brad Michaels, who’s now her boss, tries to steal her work; and a graduate student, Mackenzie, flirts with Alec and stirs Grace’s jealousy. McCaffrey effectively increases the tension every time Grace enters the water; readers will never know what will happen next. She also draws out the sexual tension between Grace and Alec at length. McCaffrey has clearly done her research, noting that sharks are “notoriously bashful” and showing Grace using a technique called “tonic immobility” to calm a shark; at another point, she notes that when Grace free-dives, “her spleen—in response to the lack of air—release[s] fresh, oxygen-rich blood into her system.” The author tells the story from a close third-person perspective, shifting between Alec and Grace, making readers privy to their true feelings. At times, though, this gets a little repetitive, as does all the minutiae regarding meals and clothes.
An often engaging tale, but stronger editing might have turned it into a gem.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9980907-5-7
Page Count: 316
Publisher: K. McCaffrey LLC
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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