A thoughtful exploration of honor, trust and middle-age romance.
In Dudley’s debut novel, a film-festival volunteer chauffeurs, advises and connects with a Hollywood star–turned–documentary filmmaker.
Jeff Whittaker, a lately unemployed 56-year-old man, used to advise the Ottawan government and corporate bigwigs in communications strategy. Now cobbling together freelance opportunities, Whittaker agrees to volunteer for a Canadian documentary film festival. He’s tapped to drive around 56-year-old Hollywood actress Margaret Torrance, who’s lately been getting few new roles. After she makes a few missteps dealing with questions about her controversial documentary Red Carpet (about sexism in the movie industry), she takes Whittaker up on his offer of help. Both have emotional baggage, and Whittaker hides a secret that could push Torrance away—yet they also share an undeniable attraction. As they come under the harsh glare of the media spotlight, they face challenges in trusting each other. In this talky, thoughtful novel, Dudley offers a grown-up romance between two people who share a love for doing good work. Drawing on his own background in the film and video industry, he anchors Whittaker and Torrance’s growing relationship in practical details of screenings, dinner parties and interviews. Whittaker is an interesting departure from the macho hero, as he’s an introvert who champions Torrance despite his dislike of confrontation. Given her history, Torrance’s attraction to Whittaker’s gentleness makes sense: “It’s not just that you know what to say…it’s that you understand. I never thought empathy could be so sexy.” All the talking, navel-gazing and epiphanies, however, bog down the story somewhat; during a romantic evening, for example, the two main characters sometimes sound more like seminar attendees than soon-to-be lovers. Luckily, Stewart also provides welcome humor and self-awareness: When Whittaker quotes a Latin phrase, corruptio optimi pessima, and translates it (“The corruption of what is best is the worst tragedy”), Torrance says what readers may be thinking: “How romantic.” Whittaker then comes back with: “Then there’s corruptio optimi pajama, which means, ‘You look hot in my pajamas.’ ”
A thoughtful exploration of honor, trust and middle-age romance.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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