An entertainingly nuanced story of old Hollywood that shows that some stars shine brighter than others.
Kirshenbaum’s novel tells a tale of a Hollywood fixer who faces a problem that he may be unable to solve.
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, stars are not born but made. Studio fixers wipe away past blemishes and the spotty public records of rising stars. Readers follow one such figure, Bartie Maddox, as he reminisces on what he sees as the biggest “fix” of his career: securing studio star and heartthrob Duke Drake the 1955 Academy Award for Best Actor while keeping his sexual orientation hidden from the public. The book then jumps back in time to the Great Depression, following the trajectories of several non-famous people, including Drake, an American heiress, an “Atomic Blonde,” and a Viennese baroness fleeing a Europe on the brink of war. Bartie molds each one into a movie star while working for SGM Studio, run by the ruthless and powerful Solomon Myers. As Bartie’s colleagues are fired or blacklisted, his power at SGM increases; meanwhile, the studio’s actors play roles offscreen and on as he rewrites their lives to avoid possible scandal. Eventually, though, Bartie confronts the reality that life, unlike a movie, can’t be fixed in post-production when SGM’s biggest star murders his own friend. Over the course of this novel, Kirshenbaum effectively uses multiple third-person perspectives, which allows for more dynamic characterization of each major player than a single voice would allow. In particular, the interweaving stories of heiress Grace Greystone and Baroness Irene Von Mendelssohn develop into a solid narrative that addresses themes of strength, resistance, and rebirth. Their soulful stories provide a rich underpinning to the novel’s portrayal of a Los Angeles that runs as wild as Babylon.
An entertainingly nuanced story of old Hollywood that shows that some stars shine brighter than others.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9798895652848
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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