Poignant, disturbing, and historically and dramatically riveting.
In Dáil’s historical novel, a woman discovers her Jewish lineage when her estranged mother dies.
Prompted by the serendipitous discovery of her own previously unknown Jewish lineage, the author was inspired to imagine the life of a young woman leaving behind Germany and her family in 1912 to reconnect with a fiancé who had already emigrated to the United States. This story of the fictional Nathalie Weiss, her daughters Sarah and Rachael Rosenblum, and her namesake granddaughter, Natalie Barlow, is also an account of the struggle of Jewish immigrants who found themselves unwelcome in an increasingly antisemitic America. Readers meet Nathalie in 1910 Germany as she argues with her parents, who insist that it is time for her to marry. The matchmaker has chosen 29-year-old Eitan Rosenblum to be her betrothed (“he is now ready to finally settle down and become serious about life”). Despite Eitan’s determination to emigrate to the United States, a marriage contract is signed, and the couple agrees that Eitan will leave first, with Nathalie following him when she is ready to leave home. Two years later, she arrives in Elyria, Ohio, but despite her best efforts, she always feels like a stranger in an unfamiliar and threatening land. (Being both Jewish and German is a double hit.) Her daughters counter the bigotry by adopting false identities: When they leave home, Sarah changes her name to Sally Rose, and Rachael becomes Charlotte Rose. Charlotte’s daughter, Natalie, slowly unravels the complicated, occasionally confusing web of family secrets revealed through the letters and journals Charlotte left behind, written mostly in German. When Natalie enlists translation help from a disenchanted priest, their ensuing romance lifts the weight of America’s long-standing history of bigotry toward immigrants and anyone not white, Protestant, and male. The narrative, alternating between past and present, is packed full of information about the Jewish experience; Dáil skillfully captures Sally and Charlotte’s terror of being discovered. The story, a carefully composed study of emotional and psychological damage endured by those forced to hide their heritage, also serves as a cautionary message relevant to today’s culture of hostility toward immigrants.
Poignant, disturbing, and historically and dramatically riveting.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781964700373
Page Count: 446
Publisher: Historium Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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