A richly detailed, if rather dizzying, tale of a spirited hero’s adventures.
The offbeat second daughter of a French mother and a Montana-born Marine recounts her struggles and romances in this contemporary novel.
In a Manhattan coffee shop, a writer named Burgess shares a table with Johanna von Eschenbach, a stranger. She reveals she has been wishing to tell her life story, so Burgess and Johanna meet for recording sessions, which result in the first-person novel that follows. Johanna begins her tale describing how she is the child of stunning Frenchwoman Marie-Aude and handsome Robert von Eschenbach, a Marine of German descent. Johanna and her older sister, Roberta, live in Wisconsin, where Marie-Aude has attained a post as a university professor. Johanna’s tempestuous parents finally separate when she is 2 years old, and she spends time in Montana with Robert when he is on leave. Her mother, also a talented pianist, favors the more traditionally attractive and accomplished Roberta. Thus, Johanna “learned very young that Roberta was Mom’s girl, and I was Dad’s.” Johanna becomes an adventurous sportswoman and spunky “Montana cowgirl” under Robert’s tutelage, at one point pulling out a shotgun from behind a bar as her strong yet gentle father seeks to defuse obnoxious patrons. Then, when Johanna is 12, her Montana and Wisconsin life balance shatters. She manages to move toward a surprising new closeness with her mother and then, after humiliating and healing sexual encounters near the end of high school, continues on to college and then a corporate law career. Along the way, she connects with several men, including someone similar to her father who also happens to have enduring ties to Roberta. Later, Johanna, facing physical challenges, experiences deep despair but then bright hope for the future.
Author Burgess notes that this book is a “first excursion into biographic story-telling” after penning some fantasy and “adventure romance” novels. Johanna’s story is certainly action-packed, with the fictional Burgess of the prologue at one point rightly noting that her tale is “an emotional rollercoaster.” This novel is a rather rollicking melodrama of “what’s going to happen next?” to Johanna, with her ending up having wide-ranging and exciting experiences, including romances with a struggling but soon-to-be famous Irish singer and a rich Swiss banker. Both affairs result in her taking the stage to participate in musical performances. Johanna is an appealing hero, not only pulling out that shotgun, but also waving a shovel to warn off attackers of a nerdy boyfriend. She brushes off being described in high school as someone “who looks like a boy in drag” by noting “my tits are small...I am what I am.” But the story gets a bit overstuffed with plot points, with two near rapes and two bouts of cancer to contend with, plus the uncovering of a love child. The period setting of the tale is a bit hazy, although texting is mentioned. Overall, this story is pulled along by its never-boring first-person protagonist, who lives up to how the fictional Burgess describes her: “There was something about her that arrested my eye, made me want to know her.”
A richly detailed, if rather dizzying, tale of a spirited hero’s adventures.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2021
ISBN: 9798778715165
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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