An entertaining ride, full of glamour and intrigue.
A middle-aged woman encounters the dark underbelly of the ballroom dance world in Paul’s novel.
Ava Thompson escapes the boredom and loneliness of being an empty nester by signing up for ballroom dance lessons at a local studio called DanceFreak. Despite being kicked out of ballet school as a kid, Ava quickly becomes enamored of the glamour of ballroom culture, and of her young Hungarian instructor, Nandi. She struggles with extreme stage fright in performance but keeps booking more classes and entering competitions, determined to succeed. Dance quickly becomes an addiction, and things start to spiral out of control, including her finances, her crush on Nandi, and her growing alienation from her husband. When one of the instructors, Laszlo, dies at a hotel during a competition, Ava learns that all is not well behind the scenes at DanceFreak: The instructors are forced into exploitative contracts, the studio owner gives free lessons to friends of a “connected” Russian, and Laszlo is rumored to have harbored secret information before he died. Ava begins to suspect that his death was not an accident, and that she and the others at the studio may be in danger if she keeps digging. This is a page-turning novel with an intimate, tell-all quality, as if Ava is dictating her memoir or spilling secrets to a close friend. The reader is drawn into the glamour and idiosyncrasies of the ballroom dance subculture with descriptions that fully capture Ava’s awe: “The cycle of comp energy…begins with a burst of enthusiasm and anticipation, swells in the see-and-be-seen environment of the fancy hotel, and comes to a peak when the dancers compete.” Though the narrative finds the characters involved in an organized criminal enterprise, the tone remains gossipy rather than dark. Paul also deftly weaves in commentary on women struggling with feelings of “invisibility" as they navigate middle age.
An entertaining ride, full of glamour and intrigue.Pub Date: June 2, 2025
ISBN: 9798285553526
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 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.
