A captivating tale of survival and love full of rich period details.
A dancing girl weathers exile, palace intrigues, and horrendous childbirths on her way to becoming queen of Cambodia in this historical romance.
Whitfield sets her engrossing novel in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, when Kampuchea under the historical King Jayavarman VII encompassed Cambodia and much of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Centering the story is Preah Chan Bopha, a peasant girl who is a prodigy of Apsara, a dance form with stately footwork and intricate hand gestures. Recruited for the royal dance troupe, Bopha is whisked off to Apsara school in the capital Angkor just months before her family is killed by foreign invaders. After years of studying, performing, and swooning over the handsome king, she is summoned to the palace to become Jayavarman’s lover and, eventually, he promises, his fourth wife. Unfortunately, Jayavarman takes offense at a stray remark of hers and exiles her to a village. There, a hellish pregnancy culminates in an agonizing delivery in the middle of a thunderstorm during which a falling tree crushes her house. Mother and twin boys pull through thanks to a midwife and the Hindu eagle god Garuda, whose voice reassures Bopha in times of trouble. A contrite Jayavarman recalls her to Angkor for a wedding in which she parades to the altar atop an elephant. But Queen Bopha faces more challenges, including the enmity of the senior queen and an attempt on the king’s life. Whitfield’s well-observed portrait of medieval Khmer culture explores everything from cuisine—staples include dried fish and crickets—to the brusque funerals in which the deceased is tossed into a ravine and devoured by vultures. But there’s also a universality to Bopha’s experiences: grieving loved ones; discovering sex and motherhood; learning to assert herself in a man’s world. Whitfield conveys all this in limpid prose that conjures poetic insights out of simple details. (“I only saw my mother smile once….The rice was boiling and she moved it to where the coals weren’t so hot. Then she just squatted there, her face soft. She was far, far away. Then, I saw it. She smiled. It lit up her face….Maybe she had been beautiful at one time, before marriage, before children.”) The result is a nice blend of striking setting and resonant pathos.
A captivating tale of survival and love full of rich period details.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2021
ISBN: 9798784990266
Page Count: 433
Publisher: PonderosaSage
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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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