A brief young love and its impact nearly 60 years later are at the core of Örnbratt's debut.
Gillian Pugsley (nee McAllister) is a free-spirited and adventurous young woman in the early 1930s. From her childhood home in Longford, Ireland, she is sent to London by her father to live with her sister and later find employment. From there, she becomes nanny for Shashi and Samir, the children of Indian royalty, but when they ask her to follow them back to India, her father balks and instead sends her across the Atlantic to live with relatives in Canada. There, she meets the handsome and charming Christian Hunter and embarks on a love story that will consume her for the rest of her life. The narrative hinges on secrets that Gillian keeps from her family and the reader while dangling hints of their magnitude throughout the novel. The main question at the onset circles around her abrupt departure from Canada after spending a blissful, romantic summer with Christian. The story jumps through time, showing the perspectives of Gillian, her granddaughter, Gilly, and Christian. Gillian asks Gilly to piece together her life story in the form of a novel, giving her a trove of notes, letters and original poetry, but when Gilly comes back to consult the source, Gillian is quiet. While Gillian’s character is memorable—feisty, unexpected and a lover of language—those around her are bland in comparison, absorbing Gillian's characteristics rather than standing firm in their own rights. It's the secondary love stories that mark Gillian's life—her relationship with her granddaughter, her long-distance friendship with Shashi—that make the novel fresh.
The obsession with, and constant reminder of, all that Gillian is withholding muddies what might otherwise be a charming and evocative love story.Pub Date: April 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61153-111-4
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Light Messages
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Categories: HISTORICAL FICTION | ROMANCE | HISTORICAL ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE
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Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Categories: GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
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