A unique coming-of-age story on wheels.
A young woman seeking adventure changes her life by taking motorcycle lessons in Xavier’s debut novel.
Three years out of college, Cassie Wright is at a standstill. She’s uncomfortable in her retail job, where she has an inappropriately flirtatious boss, and she's unhappy in her relationship with a lazy, self-proclaimed writer. During a road trip, she and her boyfriend make a pit stop at a busy motorcycle dealership, which, Cassie notices, is filled with a diverse crowd, with many people that don’t fit Cassie’s stereotypical image of “bikers.” She soon decides to take motorcycle riding lessons herself, as she believes that she needs to add risk, excitement and adventure to her everyday life. Although Cassie’s friends and family state that she is “not the motorcycle type,” she takes to it immediately. She falls for Marcus, the cute, intelligent motorcycle instructor, and soon gains the confidence to break up with her boyfriend and stand up to her boss. She begins working in marketing at a different motorcycle shop, which allows her to jump-start her career. The novel veers a bit off course when Cassie begins to attend the lessons, as the author provides so much technical detail about the motorcycle that it crowds out Cassie’s own thoughts and feelings, making the novel read like an instruction manual. That said, the author has created a likable and relatable character in Cassie, and the problems she faces will likely be familiar to 20-something college grads. Her motorcycle riding remedy for her discontent provides readers with a refreshing change of pace.
A unique coming-of-age story on wheels.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478339786
Page Count: 160
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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