by Larry Closs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022
A realistic and engaging love story in a finely illustrated setting.
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A debut novel focuses on two close friends in 1990s New York City.
The year is 1995, and Harry Charity and Jay Bishop work at a magazine called Element. Harry and Jay forge a bond when they discover they are both fans of the Beat generation. This enthusiasm reaches a new level when the two visit the New York Public Library. It is there that they see the famous scroll of Teletype paper that Jack Kerouac used to compose On the Road. It’s a match made in heaven. The two pals eat lunch together frequently and discuss writing something as a team. While Harry is single and (at least somewhat) looking for the man of his dreams, Jay seems to be straight. Jay dates an art student named Zahra Kaviani. They may have their ups and downs, but they are a serious couple. As for Harry, he focuses on his romantic problems and work. Whether Harry is reflecting on his past relationship with a man named Matteo Ortiz or interviewing Allen Ginsberg, he has much to contemplate. Closs’ story paints an inviting picture of ’90s New York. Subway tokens are on the way out and email is on the way in. Bookstores abound, and no one stares at a cellphone on a night out. Place in this world likable characters like Harry and Jay, and the stage is set for an enjoyable drama about unrequited love. Readers will feel sympathy for Harry when he pets his cat and stares off into the city night. But other aspects of the tale can be tedious. At one point, Jay ruminates on a potential career move: “I don’t want to seem like I’m begging for the job. If he offers it to me, I want to be able to say, ‘These are my terms.’ ” Such work-related discussions are as dull as they sound. This is especially true when there are more heartfelt matters at stake.
A realistic and engaging love story in a finely illustrated setting.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9781608642274
Page Count: 272
Publisher: rEBEL SaTOri PrESS
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Abby Jimenez ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2023
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.
In this contemporary romance, two emergency room doctors, both recovering from messy breakups, form a close, comforting friendship and perhaps something more.
Dr. Briana Ortiz has enough on her plate. She’s in the midst of finalizing her divorce, and her brother’s on a deadline to find a kidney donor. Now she has to worry that the new doctor, Jacob Maddox, is there to nab her promotion to chief of emergency medicine. Admittedly, Jacob—who has social anxiety—doesn't make the best first impression on Bri, telling her off for bumping into him in the hall. To make amends, he writes her a letter to explain himself and apologize, and the tension between them softens as their letters to each other keep coming. Bri realizes Jacob isn’t there to undermine her, and Jacob gets to see Bri’s more vulnerable side. When Jacob offers to be Bri’s brother’s kidney donor and Bri agrees to be Jacob’s pretend girlfriend for a wedding, it's easy to wonder what kept these two apart in the first place. The answer: not much. Of course, the two are carrying some heavy baggage from prior relationships, but it seems like a minor obstacle when compared to the genuine connection Jacob and Bri share. This is a cute, slow-burn romance with plenty of funny moments and emotional challenges, though the focus seems to be on the leads finally realizing what’s been in front of them all along through grand and sometimes unnecessary machinations. Did this need a fake dating subplot? Or epistolary flirting? Not really, but Jimenez manages to pepper these adorable tropes throughout without making them feel too gimmicky.
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781538704394
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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by Ruth Ware ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2016
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.
Ware (In A Dark, Dark Wood, 2015) offers up a classic “paranoid woman” story with a modern twist in this tense, claustrophobic mystery.
Days before departing on a luxury cruise for work, travel journalist Lo Blacklock is the victim of a break-in. Though unharmed, she ends up locked in her own room for several hours before escaping; as a result, she is unable to sleep. By the time she comes onboard the Aurora, Lo is suffering from severe sleep deprivation and possibly even PTSD, so when she hears a big splash from the cabin next door in the middle of the night, “the kind of splash made by a body hitting water,” she can’t prove to security that anything violent has actually occurred. To make matters stranger, there's no record of any passenger traveling in the cabin next to Lo’s, even though Lo herself saw a woman there and even borrowed makeup from her before the first night’s dinner party. Reeling from her own trauma, and faced with proof that she may have been hallucinating, Lo continues to investigate, aided by her ex-boyfriend Ben (who's also writing about the cruise), fighting desperately to find any shred of evidence that she may be right. The cast of characters, their conversations, and the luxurious but confining setting all echo classic Agatha Christie; in fact, the structure of the mystery itself is an old one: a woman insists murder has occurred, everyone else says she’s crazy. But Lo is no wallflower; she is a strong and determined modern heroine who refuses to doubt the evidence of her own instincts. Despite this successful formula, and a whole lot of slowly unraveling tension, the end is somehow unsatisfying. And the newspaper and social media inserts add little depth.
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-3293-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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