For better or worse, this cozy concludes with a bittersweet ending. Maybe the next installment (Lawyer for the Bird?) will...
Now that she’s represented a dog named Sherman, a Charleston family lawyer is naturally assigned as a cat’s counsel.
Though their marriage was brief and their divorce years before, Sally Baynard knows that her ex-husband, Joe, still cherishes feelings for her. But it doesn’t seem right that he uses his powers as a Charleston Family Court judge to assign her to represent pets. To be more accurate, he’s recommended Sally’s skills to a colleague, but it feels the same when she’s assigned to select the caretaker for Beatrice, Lila Mackay’s cat. Sally has a hard enough time getting her human clients to tell her the truth and nothing but; she doesn’t have the patience to deal with a client who can’t do anything but meow. Sally isn’t one to shirk her responsibilities, though. She’s been a dedicated caretaker to the ailing mother who’s lived with her for years. Moved by the same sense of duty, if not enthusiasm, Sally gets ready to choose from one of Lila’s three suggested caretakers for Beatrice. Sally’s experience helping with custody of Sherman (Lawyer for the Dog, 2015) doesn’t do her much good. She doesn’t feel the same affection for Beatrice, though her boyfriend, who happens to be a veterinarian, tries his best to bridge the gap. Sally’s biggest problem may be Lila’s bad-news son Randall, who knows that the estate will be his once Beatrice is out of the picture for good.
For better or worse, this cozy concludes with a bittersweet ending. Maybe the next installment (Lawyer for the Bird?) will provide a more positive resolution.Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-05242-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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