A vivid but uneven tour celebrating the splendors of Italy and its people.
This fictional travelogue presents two modern-day Brooklynites experiencing the wonders of Italy on their honeymoon, along with commentary by an omniscient writer and a deceased relative.
Gregory’s book begins with the first-person narrative of Nina, “long gone from this earthly world.” She is the grandmother of one of the honeymooners (“If I can pull the strings of fate just a little, they will soon be on their way to Italy to see all its beautiful treasures. I will watch over them, and maybe push a little in this or that direction all during their adventure”). Nina has also “asked this writer to help me describe Italy—you know, there is so much beauty, history...so many stories and people who changed the world.” The novel then shifts to Brooklyn, where Bobby, who has a pending job offer, proposes to Lisa, a graduate student studying resilience. She is Nina’s granddaughter. The narrative then jumps six months, with the couple on their honeymoon in Italy. Their itinerary (included as a frontmatter map in the book) encompasses Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Palermo, and many stops in between. They marvel at Italy’s art, food, and music and interact with strangers as well as a cousin and a couple of friends. By trip’s end, Bobby receives his job offer via text, and Lisa decides to focus her resilience studies on Italians. They return home, vowing to go back for visits and possibly to live full time in Italy someday. Gregory fits an impressive amount of information about Italy into this narrative, which will be an enjoyable way for many readers to access this data versus delving into guidebooks or history texts. In Venice, “Bobby’s heart jumps at the sight of the San Simeone Piccolo across the water, a commanding eighteenth-century church with long steps, a massive green dome, and a templelike entrance supported by Corinthian columns.” But the fictional plot feels a bit thin given the emphasis on the country’s rich, evocative details, with the couple, Nina, and “the writer” largely serving to comment on or exclaim over an admittedly vibrant and captivating array of facts.
A vivid but uneven tour celebrating the splendors of Italy and its people.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781947431539
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Mentoris Project
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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