by A.M. Bochnak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A studiously chilling post-apocalyptic tale.
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In this dystopian debut, a woman with magical abilities longs to escape the influence of her scientist father, who wants to guide humanity’s evolution.
During the War of 2018, the Magical Bond, people gifted with telekinesis and other skills, decimated the Common Blood, who lacked special powers. Now, in 2031, the ultrarich enjoy New York’s high life while destitute masses huddle in the shadows. Across the East River is Research Island. Dr. Daniel Hunter runs the Institute for Scientific Understanding of Magic, where he hopes to reverse the gradual diminishing of magical genes within the populace. One night, Ebony, his daughter, is enjoying the solitude of the island’s lighthouse. She can teleport objects, but she’s also beamed herself there, a facet of her power that she keeps secret. When Ebony sees a transport vessel offload people in shackles, little does she realize that a quartet of covert agents from the Order of Peace has arrived. The group—Connor Vance, Katrina Hicks, Ness Kent, and Lina Sharp—plans to assassinate the Magical Bond who’ve been enhanced by Daniel’s work. They know the truth behind the institute that Ebony doesn’t dare acknowledge—that the demanding Daniel doesn’t want to build genetic bridges with the Common Blood. He wishes to obliterate them. In her novel, Bochnak taps into the fears Americans face in 2018 (like nuclear war) to jump-start a series that blends dystopian sci-fi and horror. A quarter of New York City, for example, is called the Levels after being bombed flat. The magic that characters use is less like that found in the Harry Potter series and more like the superpowers in the X-Men comics. Ebony is a riveting heroine who loves reading and her best friend, Maggy. Ebony’s also hopeful that her cruel father might someday stop treating her like an experiment. She describes a Jane Austen novel with blunt lyricism, thinking: “It was a crazy world about a woman fighting love. There was no magic, no technology, and loving parents. A world she could not relate to.” Bochnak unspools a disturbing plot slowly, for Daniel has much to hide, and even characters who die don’t leave the story too quickly.
A studiously chilling post-apocalyptic tale.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-948169-01-1
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Mad Goat Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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