A captivating read that’s full of humor and heart.
In Stone’s novel, a modest Canadian flower shop becomes an arena for romance, heartache, and betrayal.
Twenty-six-year-old Tessa Lewis is looking for her “big”—a career that would cap years of studies, internships, and three summa cum laude degrees in liberal arts, applied statistics, and social sciences. She’s all but engaged to her boyfriend, Will Westlake, a successful lawyer whose father is a shoo-in as Toronto’s next mayor. Tessa wants to prove to everyone—but especially to Will’s controlling mother, Eleanor—that she isn’t involved with Will for his money. She takes one last summer off to figure things out and unexpectedly finds herself working at a small flower market, the Blue Iris, which she and her late mother used to visit. Now Tessa’s days involve carrying bags of manure, learning how to water a linebacker plant, and placating difficult customers. Stone’s debut reveals true affection for plant shops and their quirky, tough inhabitants: Unflappable Charlie has been working at the store for decades, and her calm reserve hides past tragedy; employees Luke and Tony are as competitive about meeting women as they are about unloading boxes; and Darryl, the brother of the man who long ran the store, seems ready to fly off the handle given the slightest chance, which Charlie is happy to provide. Plant-enthusiast readers will find much to love in this often funny tale, which offers deep insights into the drama of each planting season and Mother’s Day: “Trays lay overturned, portulaca and cilantro swaying like seaweed. SUVs idled in the street as screaming matches broke out over parking spots, the last cherry tomato plant.” The narrative’s beginning moves slowly, establishing mysteries and setting characters on collision courses: Will Tessa help Will secure votes, or will she pursue her attraction to Luke? When the novel finds its rhythm, it’s a pleasure to watch the little community fight for what matters to them—human connection, how to run a flower business and, when the Blue Iris is in danger of being converted into condos, the shop’s very existence.
A captivating read that’s full of humor and heart.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9798888240939
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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