A coming-of-age tale with a dynamic pair of brothers and plenty of light action.
In Higgs’ debut modern-day Western novella, two young Oklahoman brothers must transport a bull to a neighboring state and encounter unexpected danger.
Times are tough on the McConnell farm, as drought and hailstorms have ravaged their crops. Indeed, Robert and Rachel McConnell are one step away from foreclosure on their 320-acre ranch in Northeastern Oklahoma. They’re forced to sell their beloved purebred Hereford breed bull to satisfy the bank, and they find a buyer online who has one caveat: The animal must be delivered to Oscuro, New Mexico, in three days. Robert is injured trying to herd the animal into a trailer, so it falls upon their two sons, 20-year-old Tommy and 17-year-old Andy, to make the delivery. However, their journey is anything but straightforward. After the bull escapes from the trailer while the boys are changing a flat tire, local police and a TV news team unexpectedly get involved. Later, the siblings pick up Cassie Henshaw, a diner server who has dreams of making it big in Los Angeles; Andy saves her from an enraged chef at her job, and, from this beginning, Higgs delivers a sweet romance. (Although Tommy is reluctant to bring her along, Cassie later saves the day after Tommy loses his wallet.) Overall, the author delivers a feel-good Western that retains all the familiar hallmarks of that genre, but he places them alongside present-day obstacles. The action effectively culminates in a theft that’s followed by an adrenaline-fueled chase, which ends in a rather lopsided shootout. Through it all, Higgs makes sure that the brothers' love for their family—and their determination to do what they must to keep their livelihood intact—shines through.
A coming-of-age tale with a dynamic pair of brothers and plenty of light action.Pub Date: July 22, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-84674-059-4
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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