A delightful medical drama that’s infused with gallows humor.
A young nurse and a cynical doctor find love in this novel set in a 1970s emergency room.
Mary Grace Kelly is a young nurse who has recently left her small town to start work in a big-city ER in Ohio. She soon crosses paths with Dr. David Korn, whom she initially dislikes for his brash, arrogant personality. But David develops a crush on her, and eventually asks her out on a date, which she surprisingly accepts. The pair quickly grows close, but Mary Grace harbors a traumatic secret from her childhood that keeps her from fully letting her guard down around David, especially sexually. She befriends a homeless man, Frankie MacAnnany, and they get an apartment together, with her new roommate becoming a father figure. Frankie also bonds with David’s Uncle Solly. When Mary Grace’s abusive father becomes ill, her sister, Kathleen, demands that she return home to care for him. Mary Grace dreads this and her mental health starts to deteriorate, affecting her relationship with David. Her loved ones devise a plan to spare her a final traumatic meeting with her father. Callaghan’s story is skillfully told in an epistolary format, with letters and journal entries from the main characters. These are interspersed with the ER’s logs and case notes that are wonderfully immersive while still providing room for fully realized character arcs. The ER logs offer great opportunities for gallows humor and hint at the social issues medical workers face. One nurse writes: “What is the sense in what we do? Do we just provide band-aids to cover up the owies of society?” The scheme Solly, Frankie, and Mary Grace’s mentor, Sister Dolores, concoct to save the protagonist stretches credulity a bit. And some readers will wish Mary Grace had come up with her own road map. But the trio’s plan does lead to a believable resolution. Ultimately, this story is sure to please lovers of ER tales who also enjoy romance novels.
A delightful medical drama that’s infused with gallows humor.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 316
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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