A sprawling novel that, despite its huge cast, may charm fans of contemporary romance.
A debut novel that follows the ups and downs of a British rock band, on the charts and in their lives.
Astrid, just a teenager, has already done enough jet setting. Raised in Canada and whisked to Australia, she’s later dragged back home by her overbearing father after her mother dies. She makes a host of friends, and the center of this new family is Dandy, a beautiful free spirit who meets a group of young musicians in London. Dandy falls in love with guitarist Mac, while Astrid falls for Kenny, a soulful singer who’s also wild about her. Mac’s already a successful solo musician when he decides to form a new band, The Midnight All Stars, with Kenny and several others. Dandy and Mac marry and struggle to start a family despite Mac’s hectic tour schedule. Astrid and Kenny also have a child but eschew marriage. The band’s popularity soars, and a tour stop in Germany turns into a dangerous mob scene. As the drama of the band continues—a drummer in rehab, a useless tour manager—their dramatic personal lives keep pace. Astrid pursues filmmaking and is seduced by movie mogul Alister, whom she marries in what her loved ones fear is a fit of insanity. Dandy, meanwhile, is torn among her blossoming career as a novelist, the demands of her children and the constant loneliness of having a husband on the road. The novel’s greatest distraction is its sheer population, as readers meet 23 characters in the first 50 pages, with dozens more to follow. Readers may find themselves constantly flipping back to remember, for example, who Julia’s husband is or how many sisters Dandy has. The plot’s many twists, including the introduction of a long-lost nephew, only adds to the confusion. The strongest relationship in the book is Dandy and Mac’s, whose deep love and affection comes through clearly on every page; it would be satisfying to follow their marriage alone, but the chapters switch between Dandy’s and Kenny’s points of view, making for an overwhelming tale. Determined readers, however, will be rewarded with warm portraits of love—between friends, lovers, partners, parents, children and band mates.
A sprawling novel that, despite its huge cast, may charm fans of contemporary romance.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1466397927
Page Count: 652
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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