Secrets, rejection, and betrayal are no match for the powers of forgiveness in this charming novel.
Estate planner Grace Adams has always been good at writing the ending to anyone's life story. That is, until her husband and business partner, Brian, asks for a divorce. How will her story end now?
Fox (Out of Practice, 2016, etc.) debuts a new series with this novel, which channels a little Under the Tuscan Sky meets Auntie Mame. Grace has always done what's right for her family. After her father left when she was only 14, Grace stood by her mother's side. She returned from college not only to take over the family law firm, but also, later, to take care of her mother in her final days. Despite their having been best friends since childhood, it hits Brian hard to discover that Grace can't have children. Discovering that Brian has reconnected with his ex-girlfriend Angelica, that she's pregnant, and that she's moved into the house Grace vacated only months ago hits Grace hard. But that's when Grace finds a postcard inviting her mother to Cypress Key, a paradisiacal small town in Florida. Hoping to turn over a new leaf—or at least run away from the shame of having covered Brian's car in birdseed—Grace calls the number on the postcard to discover that she has an octogenarian Great Aunt Millie who’s delighted to have her come visit. The local matchmaker, vibrant Millie introduces Grace to local beaches and the joys of both meditation and boxing. Meanwhile, Jason Davis, the charming owner of a local hotel, introduces Grace back to her own heart. Yet discovering why Grace's family shut Millie out of their lives decades earlier may break Grace's heart anew.
Secrets, rejection, and betrayal are no match for the powers of forgiveness in this charming novel.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63511-288-7
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Henery Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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