A sweet story of strength and second chances.
A woman seeks to put her troubled childhood behind her in Barrett’s debut novel.
Elizabeth Parker Morgan is born into a family of great privilege and great sorrow. Her mother, unable to overcome her own childhood traumas, has become an ill, unstable recluse; her father is an often absent, cruel man who inherits the unwanted burden of a successful family business. Elizabeth escapes to boarding school, college, and, ultimately, a life abroad in France. In the beauty and light of Lyon, she lives out her own fairy tale. Her job is challenging but fulfilling, and she soon becomes indispensable to her company. Thanks to her employer and benefactor, she settles into a beautiful, furnished apartment of her own. As is the case in all fairy tales, Elizabeth falls head over heels for a handsome man, yet she also discovers that the path of true love isn’t easy. Antonio Ponti has a dark past, and his old ties to gamblers haunt his personal and professional lives. The lovers are torn apart by a threat of violence, and Elizabeth flees back to the United States, brokenhearted and pregnant. However, she’s buoyed by the love of her friends and her brother and determined to make a good life for her child. Despite the shadows that surround her, Elizabeth learns the value of unconditional love and finds herself questioning whether a future with Antonio is still possible. Barrett’s novel is a light but worthwhile read. She’s a highly descriptive writer who paints lovely pictures of cobblestone streets, sun-dazzled plazas, and intimate cafes. Although her narrative of star-crossed lovers isn’t unique, it does have an unusual twist: in a pleasant departure from the traditional fairy-tale trajectory, Barrett’s heroine relies on her own determination and creates her own successes rather than waiting to be rescued by a man. It’s a welcome contrast to the sexist, demeaning attitudes that defined Elizabeth’s childhood and a satisfying victory for a protagonist who broke a cycle of abuse and unhappiness.
A sweet story of strength and second chances.Pub Date: July 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4636-0461-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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.
