A clever, incisive character study that explores romance and strife.
A debut literary novel focuses on a troubled couple’s relationship dynamics.
What happens when cracks start to form in the ideal life? Hannah and Will Abbott embody the picture-perfect existence, with their supportive marriage, beautiful home, and two wonderful kids. But when each starts to suspect the other of infidelity, the ordinary points of friction in any relationship spiral into a major crisis. The plot really kicks off when Hannah seeks advice from a divorce attorney, dramatically escalating tensions until neither spouse can stop their stories from taking on lives of their own. It’s at this point that the novel truly shines, with the introduction of David Dewey and Rachel Goldstein, Will’s and Hannah’s respective attorneys, as point-of-view characters, lending the portrait of the couple more depth. Additionally, the lawyers spur the proceedings forward, rapidly escalating tensions even as their personal and professional lives become increasingly entangled with the Abbotts’. But an unexpected opportunity presents itself when Will and Hannah get an offer to appear on a reality TV show about divorcing couples. With the gorgeous backdrop of St. John and millions watching, the two are surrounded by distractions and temptations, but they may also finally have the breathing room to think things over the right way and decide whether this is an ending or a new beginning. Treese’s prose is strong and naturalistic throughout, giving readers deep insight into the characters’ thought processes and sticking close to their perspectives. The story also occasionally skips around in time, especially toward the beginning, which provides a detailed look at the relationship. If there is a fault in the characterization, it’s that Will and Hannah lean toward the archetypal. He’s spontaneous while she’s fastidious; she’s composed when he’s childish. These are familiar tropes, but the humor, the momentum of the plot, and the complications and viewpoints presented by Rachel and David more than make up for any sense of rote familiarity. Ultimately, this nuanced and empathetic novel balances the difficult and the heartwarming, managing to become more than the sum of its parts.
A clever, incisive character study that explores romance and strife.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73589-610-6
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Moxie Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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