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SNAP

RED BEAR RISING

From the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles series , Vol. 10

A curious vampire tale that zeros in on the human element.

The Kandesky vampires combat forces invading Ukraine while a woman contemplates joining the formidable family in this 10th installment of a series.

Jazz Fall doesn’t question her love for centuries-old vampire Nik Kandesky, which is why she agreed to marry him. But she’s understandably anxious: Jazz is a “regular” (a mortal) and wedded bliss with Nik entails becoming one of the undead. She seeks advice from her vampire pal Maxie, a former regular whose husband, Jean-Louis Kandesky, is second-in-command of the Kandeskys. Both women hold significant positions at SNAP, “the world’s largest and richest celebrity gossip empire,” which provides much of the Kandeskys’ wealth. But Jazz isn’t only worried about a drastically different vampiric life; Nik has an apparent desire to control her, a problem Maxie faced with Jean-Louis. Meanwhile, what appear to be Russian soldiers stage an attack in Odessa in Ukraine, the country where the Kandeskys live. The vampires try to determine whether the Russians’ incursion is a terrorist strike or an act of war; the latter could feasibly ignite World War III. Their quasi-investigation leads to confrontations with the invading enemy that ultimately put everyone, including Jazz, in danger. Drier (SNAP: I, Vampire, 2016, etc.) convincingly incorporates vampires into a soap-opera narrative. Jazz is comfortable with the notion of vamps; her biggest potential loss, it seems, is food, as the Kandeskys only consume blood. Though there’s little action in the tale, the author deals with violence in clever ways. For example, in one scene, Jazz experiences a gunfight and explosion by sound alone, as she takes cover inside a limo. The lucid story, centering on the couples’ relationships, makes strong points about vampires and regulars alike, particularly that both parties should be willing to compromise. But that message, at least in this installment, doesn’t wholly succeed: Jazz’s life will radically change whereas Nik will sacrifice hardly a thing.

A curious vampire tale that zeros in on the human element.

Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2018

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 333

Publisher: Time Tunnel Media

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019

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IT ENDS WITH US

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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  • New York Times Bestseller


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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

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