A gritty, glamorous novel full of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
In 1977, a young woman moves to Los Angeles and quickly finds herself caught up in the exciting—but dangerous—music scene.
Priscus’ debut novel starts with a bang: “Josie, who’d be covered in blood on bathroom tiles in nine months’ time, met me at the Greyhound Station.” The “me” in question is Faun Novak, who has nothing to lose when she moves to LA to live with her high school best friend, Josie. A recent college dropout, Faun arrives with little more than her beloved Polaroid camera. Josie’s always been a bit larger than life, and now she’s spun her charm into something truly impressive: She’s dating Cal Holiday, the lead singer of the rock band Holiday Sun. Faun easily gets swept into Josie’s glamorous world, clutching her camera and taking photographs of the debauched situations she encounters behind the scenes as she and Josie party with the band. Faun befriends the other girls who hang out with Holiday Sun, the ones who are often dismissed as groupies—a band member’s wife, another band member’s underage girlfriend. But all that glitters isn’t gold, and Josie’s relationship with Cal Holiday isn’t as perfect as it looks from the outside. The lifestyle that Faun thought she wanted and the band she initially worshipped aren’t quite as exciting after countless concerts and parties. And as Faun’s journey races toward the bloody ending promised in the opening line, she realizes that she may be in way over her head. The story is peppered with so many details about debauched parties and blaring music that readers can almost see the Polaroids that Faun compulsively snaps. And although it’s quite effective as a time capsule of the 1970s rock scene, it’s also an exploration of obsession and a compassionate look at the women and girls many people would easily dismiss. This would be a perfect choice for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six.
A gritty, glamorous novel full of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-321801-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
