A sensitively crafted history of pioneers and immigrants for American history enthusiasts.
Family history becomes intertwined with the realities of crossing the Oregon Trail in Kellebrew’s historical novel.
In 1852, Marilla Washburn’s family follows the Oregon Trail and experiences its harshness, suffering the loss of Marilla’s brother Henry and enduring cholera along the way. At 15 years of age, Marilla marries John Black, an Irishman who escaped an alcoholic father to sail to Oregon. John and Marilla enjoy a gentle courtship and a happy marriage. Soon, their story becomes intertwined with that of Marilla’s brother Walter, the first of her siblings to be born in Washington territory. He’s a gunslinger, drunkard, and idealist; the author follows him through his marriage to an Indigenous woman named Little Frogs to a stint prospecting for gold in Alaska. Kellebrew’s book is part memoir, part history, and part fiction, blended together in a series of vignettes and scenes that draw the interlinked characters in her family history together. (“I suppose Walter’s bones lie there to this day, one neat bullet hole punched through his skull.”) Interspersed throughout the text are the words of her ancestors Walter Meikle and John Meikle, framing Kellebrew’s exploration of the latter half of the 19th century through the eyes of her own family. Readers will enjoy the lyrical writing style (“We saw the river take him, Henry my brother, my mother’s son, and yank him downstream like an autumn leaf”), though occasionally the flicking from past to present, and between first-person narration and third-person imaginings in the author’s voice, is somewhat jarring. This approach does, however, allow space for Kellebrew to pontificate on the various themes that are woven into the narrative, including Indigenous rights and the ownership of land, homelessness, and the strength exhibited by her forebears in taking these journeys. The whole book is drawn together by the threads of movement and worldbuilding as Kellebrew observes, “In the grand scheme of things, civilization is the anomaly, permanent habitation the aberration.”
A sensitively crafted history of pioneers and immigrants for American history enthusiasts.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781963115277
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Unsolicited Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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