A detailed tale of the powers of thought, chance, and love.
Debut author Vernieri presents a character-driven Spanish-language novel about an imaginative young woman.
ArgentinianLina Guzmán has always been introverted, but if she finds a quiet space, she can transport herself to Planeta Lina: an imagined fantasy locale that she finds far more interesting than her real life. She also ponders philosophical questions, such as “¿Quién dice qué es lo real y qué no lo es?” (“Who is to say what is real and what is not?”) The problem is that she can’t spend all her time on creative activities, such as writing and drawing. These are nice hobbies, she thinks, but not typically practical; her parents want her to study medicine or architecture. Her life’s winding journey eventually takes her to Europe and Africa. In a parallel storyline, readers meet Cuban-born, Florida-raised Johnny Barkley, who’s giving a speech in New York City. He’s developed a method to fight drug addiction that he discovered during a lucid dream. His technique has had good results, but despite his success, he’s troubled by his lack of a serious romantic relationship. But after he picks up a book in the airport titled El Hèroe, he’s so taken with it that he feels compelled to track down the author; this quest brings him into contact with Lina. Vernieri effectively portrays Lina as always open to new possibilities; even relatively small experiences can have an immense effect on her. A simple kiss prompts her to comment that “mi cuerpo temblaba como una hoja, mi alma vibraba en plenitud” (“my body shook like a leaf, my soul vibrated”). As with Johnny’s story, external events play their role, but it’s internal developments that generate the most intriguing questions. When Johnny has his dream, for instance, it involves taking an imaginary pill; its real-world inspirational effect may strike readers as simultaneously possible and impossible. Some of Johnny’s backstory feels long-winded (as when the reader is informed of his mother’s many struggles escaping Cuba); however, when the novel tackles the odder aspects of the mind, it does so eloquently.
A detailed tale of the powers of thought, chance, and love.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4269-1548-2
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2022
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
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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