Despite a few flaws, an absorbing story of resilience in the face of challenges.
This autobiographical novel traces a deaf Iranian woman’s life through political and personal turmoil, love, and illness.
Growing up in Tehran in the 1950s, Zhila Shirazi is doubly an outsider: Her family is Jewish, and she is deaf. Any kind of disability is viewed as shameful in her culture, so to pass for normal, Zhila becomes a highly skilled lip reader. Her condition demands constant vigilance, and even then, the world can be a dangerous place. Zhila copes well with her challenges, earning a degree in geology; in 1972, she begins work as a heavy-mineral specialist. The future looks bright—but then Iran’s Islamic Revolution makes it unsafe to be Jewish in the country. Zhila and her family eventually make their way to the United States, though not before the new regime blinds and nearly kills her father. In Los Angeles, Zhila retrains as a certified nursing assistant and endures an abusive, short-lived marriage. At the age of 49, she meets Mickey Daniels, who’s also deaf. They fall in love and marry, but in 2010, Zhila is diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She dies five years later, leaving Mickey heartbroken. In his book, Thal vividly conjures up a world that doesn’t exist anymore in Iran, one that’s diverse (if antisemitic) and culturally vibrant, with rich career opportunities for women. While the immigrant story of courageously starting over and adapting is familiar, Zhila’s disability adds another dimension. But the tale’s episodic structure doesn’t always advance the plot, including several vacation trips described with tourist-guide details (“The 125-year-old Synagogue de la Victoire mercifully survived the destruction by the Nazis during their occupation. Also called The Grand Synagogue of Paris, its grandeur was evidenced by its classical arches and 2,000-seat capacity”). And, since Mickey is an author stand-in, Zhila’s high praise can sound uncomfortably self-congratulatory: “Mickey’s quiet brilliance always left me awed.”
Despite a few flaws, an absorbing story of resilience in the face of challenges.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953469-85-4
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
A smart, steamy romance.
Tomforde’s sports romance pairs boardroom power plays with dugout drama.
As the youngest and only female owner of a Major League Baseball team, Reese Remington is used to pressure. Even though Reese is the granddaughter of the Windy City Warriors’ former owner, the men around her still question her position; she’ll “most likely have to work twice as hard and make [the] club’s success twice as noticeable to have any hope of being viewed as the right person to operate this team.” It doesn’t help that the franchise is bleeding money, the result of her grandfather’s hands-off approach in the years before his retirement. Reese must use her razor-sharp intelligence and fierce business sense to not only prove herself in a role in which the public is eager to see her fail, but also to make unpopular financial decisions to get the team out of the red. Enter Emmett Montgomery, a former All-Star turned field manager whose priorities lie firmly with people rather than profit. A man devoted to his team and his adopted child, Emmett has long since closed the door on romance, despite gentle nudging from his loved ones. His empathetic team-first mentality puts him immediately at odds with Reese’s pragmatic agenda, and with his contract up at the end of the year, Emmett worries he’ll be on the chopping block if he speaks out too much. Told from the perspectives of the leads, the novel gives equal page time to Reese and Emmett. Their concerns––the scrutiny Reese must endure as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and Emmett’s worries over his contract renewal––are tangible and add a sense of urgency to their every decision. While the novel includes some unavoidable exposition dumps to orient readers, it more than compensates by establishing clear stakes and a sense of momentum from the outset. The narrative successfully introduces credible barriers to the romance, which largely follows recognizable genre beats. The baseball setting is also used effectively, with the season-long arc mirroring the couple’s romantic and professional journeys.
A smart, steamy romance.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781649379795
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 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.
