An appealing tale about the power of love and family.
A tightknit Texas clan comes together after a devastating tragedy in Summers’ latest novel.
On the night of her daughter’s high school graduation, Felicity Otto-Buchanan’s life changes forever. For the past year and a half, she’s raised two teenagers as a single mom in suburban Texas Hill Country—ever since her physician husband, Matt Buchanan, left her for pharmaceutical sales rep Amber. Then Amber dies in a car crash, and Matt, who’s dying of his injuries, asks Felicity to care for Jack, his toddler son, who’s in a coma. She agrees to do so. However, Felicity’s 16-year-old son, Nick, reacts to the situation by acting out, drinking, and performing a shocking act of vandalism. Her 18-year-old daughter, Honor, grieves the loss of her father while forming a new romantic relationship with Owen, a military-bound classmate; she also discovers a secret that Felicity has kept from her. Felicity’s younger sister, Charity, returns to the small town of Pecan Valley after years of traveling and working abroad, and she’s secretly three months pregnant—the result of a love affair in Italy that ended badly. She develops an interest in strong-but-silent local policeman Braden Martinez and also tries to facilitate a match for Felicity. Meanwhile, Dr. Graham Murphy, Matt’s former colleague, deals with his teenage daughter’s struggles with mental illness and anorexia and grieves the recent loss of his wife. He also grapples with his newfound feelings for his friend Felicity. Veteran romance writer Summer—the author of Dog Park Sweethearts (2020), among other novels—creates a vibrant setting in Pecan Valley that ably supports the story; it not only features sweet summer festivals and a famous local delicacy, but also includes a minor character who’s reminiscent of Dolly Levi from the musical Hello, Dolly! The story is told from the third-person perspectives of Felicity, Charity, Graham, Honor, and Nick, and the author develops each character with care, although the story would likely have benefited from more streamlining and less head-hopping. Even so, it’s a fast-paced and satisfying read.
An appealing tale about the power of love and family.Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68281-474-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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