An engaging mix of bucolic mystery and the enigmas of the writing life.
A middle-aged woman trying to heal from a divorce retreats to an isolated cabin in this novel.
In Smith’s tale, 50-year-old Maggie Raines arrives at an old cabin off Patterson Road the day after Christmas, fresh from a divorce. Tom, her husband of 30 years, had revealed to her that he impregnated his receptionist, 26-year-old Bethany, and intended to help raise the child. This left Maggie reeling, “wondering if the next chapter of her life was to be an epic tragedy…a horror story…or maybe a suspense.” Packing her things from the house she and Tom shared all those years, she decided to become a writer and impulsively rented an old cabin in the woods of Marston County, 70 miles from Nashville, leaving her old life and her grown twins, Robbie and Cal, for a little isolation. Now, settling in that solitude, Maggie meets Zeke Thompson, a mysterious stranger who “looked like a fair-haired version of one of her teen idols.” He shows up at her door the same day a prisoner escapes from a nearby penitentiary. He quickly comes to seem unreal somehow—Maggie begins to wonder if she’s just imagining him. She confides all this to Marston County’s hardworking sheriff, Canon Dale, who listens sympathetically but privately notices that there are no extra tracks outside Maggie’s cabin, no evidence that anybody else has been there. Smith deftly presents Dale’s story parallel to Maggie’s in order to set up narrative momentum. He’s a workaholic who hasn’t taken a day off in 30 years, but he’s quickly attracted to Maggie—and almost immediately drawn into the mysteries that begin to deepen around her stay in the cabin. The author cannily crafts all of this in knowing and occasionally overlush prose, and she handles the unfolding mystery of Zeke with a great deal of skill. The romance between Dale and Maggie feels heavy-handed, but the rest of the intriguing tale works smoothly.
An engaging mix of bucolic mystery and the enigmas of the writing life.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-57-892723-7
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Haphazard and undemanding.
A sports agent’s first official client is the man she dumped years ago in college.
After two years of hard work as an underling, Nora Mackenzie is finally being promoted to full-time sports agent. She’s worked hard, kept quiet, and allowed men in the office to call her Mac—a nickname she hates—all to show she’s a team player and “one of the guys.” Unfortunately, her boss instructs her to sign Derek Pender, a football player coming off an injury, who happens to be the man she heartlessly dumped in their senior year of college. Derek signs with her for revenge, seeing it as his opportunity to pay Nora back for callously breaking his heart eight years earlier. He insists she be at his beck and call: answering his emails, running his errands, cooking dinner for his dates. He also refuses to let her explain why she broke up with him without warning or explanation. Nora feels she has no choice but to acquiesce to Derek’s humiliating demands, since she’s worked too hard to let him ruin her dream job. She hopes he’ll thaw and they might become friends, but Derek’s bad behavior is designed to hide the fact that he’s still in love with her. Nora’s characterization is uneven, veering between anger at how she’s treated in the male-dominated field to immature bickering and bantering with Derek. Although Adams likely meant for Derek and Nora’s interactions to have an enemies-to-lovers vibe, the characters instead seem juvenile and stuck in the past. The novel is fueled by a string of tropes—second chance romance! married in Vegas! only one bed!—each randomly deployed to keep the book going despite thin characterization and wan plotting.
Haphazard and undemanding.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723678
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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