In this romance, emotional damage is no match for the power of kindness.
A child’s fingers slip away from Abbie Sinclair’s frantic rescue attempts, drowning into the mud, while her lover, Werner, is captured and left to die due to corporate greed in Peru.
The trauma leaves her suffocating in confused, guilty nightmares, unable to resume her work as a documentary filmmaker. Why did Werner continue to film instead of helping her rescue the child? Why did she allow herself to be dragged to safety? Her best friend, Celeste, sends Abbie to recuperate with her relatives in the genteel poverty of Stargazey Point, S.C. The three octogenarian Crispin siblings, of course, need Abbie as much as she needs them. Marnie’s mysterious past gives her the strength to manage her sister, Millie, who refuses to give up on their dilapidated house. Their brother, Beau, obsessively sculpts wood and helps Cabot Reynolds—the small town’s prodigal son—restore his uncle’s carousel. Abbie meets darkly handsome Cab at dinner her first night with the Crispins. Suspicious of Abbie’s motives, Cab reluctantly squires her about town. Things turn sentimental at this point, with a flock of neglected, impoverished—and in some cases abused—children, who desperately need Abbie’s attention, and an old Gullah woman, whose second sight penetrates to the very core of every troubled soul. Noble’s (Beach Colors, 2012) sophomore novel unfortunately does little with the intriguing threads of Abbie’s haunted past, instead weaving her troubling tale into a standard romance. From Cab’s flight from a materialistic fiancee and heartless corporate exploitation to Beau’s mysterious reluctance to show his art, the troubles in Stargazey Point evoke little surprise. Even the careful restoration of the carousel becomes a metaphor for the simple notion that helping others is the key to healing the self.
In this romance, emotional damage is no match for the power of kindness.Pub Date: July 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-225834-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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