by Linda Crew ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
An often pleasant, if somewhat lengthy, Oregon-set novel of trees and family.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
A widower and a divorcée shake up a wealthy Oregon family in Crew’s literary novel.
In 2009, the members of the Garland family are bigwigs around Corvallis, Oregon, as the wealthy owners of Garland Forests, a major timber supplier. Will Trask is the humble son of a logger who married into the family and now works as a timber consultant and realtor. Since the death of his wife, Shelley, he’s done his best to raise their sons, Gar and Cody, though he feels like he’s lost touch with the teens. Now Gar is off to college, and Will is feeling increasingly adrift. Bridget Garland—who, like Will, married into the extended Garland clan—is a physical therapist known locally as “the Good Witch.” She’s recently decided to leave her cheating husband, John—which may mean severing ties with his powerful family: “They may own the forests, but they don’t own this town,” Bridget tells Will. “Corvallis is my town too, now. And the part of my life I’ve loved is right here.” But when Bridget enlists Will to help her go up against their in-laws, the entire family gets entangled in a mess of secrets and real estate. Crew’s prose flows smoothly across the page, inflected with wonderful details about the forests that form the backdrop of her characters’ lives, as when Will reflects on a comment to a real estate client: “ ‘Trees just get big fast here.’ More complicated than that, but Will didn’t feel like explaining….[P]eople who didn’t know just looked at a big tree and had no idea the size of the true old growth forests of the past.” The plot is slow-paced, and relatively few dramatic events disrupt the overall placidity. That said, Crew constructs her characters with such care that readers will be largely content to follow them through the intricacies of their relationships. At around 400 pages, the novel is perhaps a bit too long, but the author uses the space to grapple with the ins and outs of grief, new love, and old rivalries.
An often pleasant, if somewhat lengthy, Oregon-set novel of trees and family.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More by Linda Crew
BOOK REVIEW
by Linda Crew
BOOK REVIEW
by Linda Crew
BOOK REVIEW
by Linda Crew
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
38
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kristin Hannah
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Awards & Accolades
Likes
11
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
11
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Tana French
BOOK REVIEW
by Tana French
BOOK REVIEW
by Tana French
BOOK REVIEW
by Tana French
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.