An uneven portrait of difficult love.
Caleb, a fictional Coast Guardsman, falls in love with Caribé, a Dominican woman he rescues, and they attempt to relocate during her illegal escape from the Dominican Republic.
Set within the rough confines of poverty, Caribé’s story—though fictional—addresses the experience of Caribbean citizens who risk their lives to reach the promise of a better life in the U.S. After losing her family at sea when a previous escape attempt goes awry, Caribé is more determined than ever to leave behind the Dominican Republic and its looming threats to her safety. As she struggles to raise enough money to both survive and fund her escape, Caribé continues to dodge violent intimidations from Raul, a drug trafficker bent on using her for the trade. Once able to pay for the next yola headed for America, she struggles with the fear, starvation and filth that accompany illegal immigration. Days later, the U.S. Coast Guard stops her boat after it loses engine power, and the dehydrated passengers are transferred to the Coast Guard’s cutter to be transported back home. Amid the chaos, Caribé meets Caleb, a young member of the Coast Guard responsible for rescuing her yola; upon returning to Dominican shores, they bond over the rescue. Caleb’s crew regularly returns to the port, so he begins to see Caribé for meals, drinks and travel, before they exchange contact information and make plans for future visits. As Caleb falls for her, despite mocking from his crew, Caribé works to maintain an image that hides her hardships from him. Their love growing, the couple faces challenges to their relationship from forces greater than themselves—the complex, tragic systems of nationality and privilege that govern the world. Yet the story becomes rather one-dimensional, as the omniscient narrator focuses too much on romance, foregoing the realistic depiction of the disproportionate struggles they face. Although the narrator lingers on the details of Caleb’s life aboard his ship, readers will lose a sense of Caribe’s life as a Caribbean woman dealing with impressive hardships: potential poverty, national unrest, complex racial structures, etc. Although at times the dialogue can be overworked, the rewarding passages artfully capture love confronting the region’s unavoidable ethnic and national stigmas.
An uneven portrait of difficult love.Pub Date: June 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470113469
Page Count: 352
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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