The author’s emotional intelligence shines through in this affecting novel’s quirky, evolving characters.
A novel with an unusual timeline, one that teeters between a woman’s determination to have an acting career in the 1980s and her small family’s future difficulties.
Once, women in Salem, Massachusetts, were tried and convicted as witches due to their supposedly superhuman abilities. Bewitchingly beautiful Susan Byrne plays one of the Salem witches at a local museum for an agonizingly long three years as she waits for a break that will get her to stardom. Before that break arrives, she meets tenure-track historian Alcott Bliss; they fall in love and marry, and Susan agrees to remain in his beloved Boston environs. Perhaps playing an alleged witch affected her more than she realized, as Susan seems superhuman when she lands a recurring role on a long-running daytime soap opera and begins an arduous weekly commute between coasts—even after the young couple agrees to start a family. As scenes of their twins, Sebastian and Viola, years later alternate with scenes of Susan and Al’s increasingly strained relationship, it seems something has to give. Readers will know what that something is from the opening chapter set during Susan’s funeral when the twins are 7, but the expert shuffle between the two time periods will keep them invested in the familial sleight of hand so many will practice in the early years of parenthood. The dealer’s-choice structure allows Seb and Lola to reach adulthood without feeling tethered in roles as progeny; they love and hate their parents in differing amounts at different times, while remaining individuals capable of real achievements and heartbreaking mistakes. The contrast of Susan’s foreshortened career with her best friend Orson Grey’s ascending stardom might be employed in one plot twist too far, yet this bit of business serves to underline one of the kid’s mistakes. In the end, like the soap opera Susan stars in, this drama allows readers to “dissolve; feel your own problems grow trivial against the melodrama, against the height of what a human can feel.”
The author’s emotional intelligence shines through in this affecting novel’s quirky, evolving characters.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668089477
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
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
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