A match made in heaven for fans of happily-ever-afters in all mediums.
A city girl travels to a small town in pursuit of her next big story but soon finds out that life isn’t anything like her favorite TV movies.
New York City native Adina Gellar is having a quarter-life crisis. She’s ready for the romanticized small-town life you find in Hallmark movies—the kind where grand gestures from hot volunteer firefighters are the norm. But for now, she’s living in an apartment with her mother, working as a barista and spin-class instructor while trying to score a byline in the pop-culture magazine Tea. While building her journalism portfolio, Adina cures her wanderlust with Million Dollar Listing reruns, where she learns about Pleasant Hollow. Real estate mogul Andrew Hanes has plans to rebrand the quaint town just 60 miles north of NYC by adding massive condominiums and a shopping mall. Hoping to rescue the small town’s charm from gentrification and get a full-time job offer, Adina pitches this real-life Hallmark story to Tea and gets the green light to cover the story. When she arrives in Pleasant Hollow, she has a meet-cute with the handsome Finn Adams and assumes he’s the charming nephew of the B&B’s owner until it’s revealed that he’s the project manager for the new development. Much to Adina’s dismay, Finn’s identity isn’t her only misconception; instead of resisting the new development, most of the townspeople actually want it. While Pleasant Hollow is unfortunately more hollow than pleasant, Adina is determined to complete her story, especially if it means getting to explore her undeniable chemistry with Finn. Die-hard Hallmark fans will appreciate mentions of Loveuary and Andrew Walker as well as some steamier moments in lieu of a pie-baking competition. Schorr adeptly portrays the problem of Adina's expectations versus reality while never belittling the perfectly predictable romances that Adina and so many others cherish: “Not many real-world relationships could survive if all their problems needed to be solved within two hours or 300 pages. Thankfully, we have the benefit of open-ended deadlines when it comes to love.”
A match made in heaven for fans of happily-ever-afters in all mediums.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-5476-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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