This uplifting novel of clashing cultures and faith in the underdog will leave readers with hope for troubled teens.
In Hale’s novel, a teacher reaches out to the children the educational system has left behind—all while desperately wanting children of her own.
After Olivia Dalton losing her job as a high school teacher, she and two other teachers were asked to take at-risk students into a special prevention program and guide them to graduation. Olivia’s big heart entangles her in the personal lives of her students, but she strives to understand the lives they live in a neighborhood just blocks away—but in a much different world—from hers. While she and her husband, Tom, struggle to conceive a child of their own (a cause of tension in their marriage), her teen students flaunt pregnancies that show someone cared about them for at least one night. Despite her cheery optimism, Olivia sees the consequences her students face; some spend time in jail, commit robberies and succumb to the violence of the street. Though the setting feels like the ’80s (Hale herself was a dropout-prevention teacher in New York City years ago) the core of the material is contemporary. As usual, the highest-risk students often need a teacher’s faith most. Hale’s use of urban dialect to represent how Dalton’s students speak feels genuine yet not condescending. Ultimately, Dalton’s respect for her students—for their music, commitment to each other and their potential to overcome disadvantages—helps reveal a cast of teens worth caring about. The authentic emotional conversations about adoption also make up for the limited details regarding the reality of that route’s difficulty and expense.
This uplifting novel of clashing cultures and faith in the underdog will leave readers with hope for troubled teens.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-1462061013
Page Count: 356
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.
In this contemporary romance, two emergency room doctors, both recovering from messy breakups, form a close, comforting friendship and perhaps something more.
Dr. Briana Ortiz has enough on her plate. She’s in the midst of finalizing her divorce, and her brother’s on a deadline to find a kidney donor. Now she has to worry that the new doctor, Jacob Maddox, is there to nab her promotion to chief of emergency medicine. Admittedly, Jacob—who has social anxiety—doesn't make the best first impression on Bri, telling her off for bumping into him in the hall. To make amends, he writes her a letter to explain himself and apologize, and the tension between them softens as their letters to each other keep coming. Bri realizes Jacob isn’t there to undermine her, and Jacob gets to see Bri’s more vulnerable side. When Jacob offers to be Bri’s brother’s kidney donor and Bri agrees to be Jacob’s pretend girlfriend for a wedding, it's easy to wonder what kept these two apart in the first place. The answer: not much. Of course, the two are carrying some heavy baggage from prior relationships, but it seems like a minor obstacle when compared to the genuine connection Jacob and Bri share. This is a cute, slow-burn romance with plenty of funny moments and emotional challenges, though the focus seems to be on the leads finally realizing what’s been in front of them all along through grand and sometimes unnecessary machinations. Did this need a fake dating subplot? Or epistolary flirting? Not really, but Jimenez manages to pepper these adorable tropes throughout without making them feel too gimmicky.
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781538704394
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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