An engaging story about a woman and her canine overcoming heartbreak as a pack.
A dog mourns the abrupt split of an engaged couple in this contemporary novel.
Lucy and John are soon to be married. Their small pack is rounded out by their huge half-wolf dog, Skip, who acts as the story’s narrator. Without warning, John tells Lucy he needs time alone and walks out, leaving Skip as her only emotional support. The canine goes through his own grieving process, wondering about “our pack’s future together.” He tries to comfort Lucy; she rescued him from the pound so he vows: “We’ll figure this out together. You saved me once, and now I’ll save you.” But being a single, working dog mom poses logistical challenges so Lucy gets help from her neighbors, even the semi-reclusive Manny on the top floor. The boy downstairs, Thomas, bonds with Skip by reading him a Harry Potter tale while Lucy works. The dog grows very close to the boy: “I don’t have to be strong with Thomas….I just need to listen and let him be my friend.” Now that Skip is cared for, Lucy can focus on her new job as “the head geriatrics nurse and wellness director” at a retirement home. Soon Lucy and Skip both realize they are making new friends, having enjoyable experiences, and missing John less. But when he tries to move back in, they must decide if they want to return to their old pack or let go of their past and move confidently into the future. Although Lucy and John’s love story is the initial plot thread, with his abandonment, the tale smoothly shifts to the uplifting romance between the heroine and Skip. Case’s (Tiger Drive, 2018, etc.) decision to have readers view most of the story through Skip’s perspective deftly reinforces the pair’s emotional connection. But at times, this conceit falters, especially when Skip uses words like “chillaxed” or “carpe diem.” The author also offers some unnecessary subplots, which fail to add much to the narrative and only increase the page count. Those minor faults aside, this novel is a superb choice for fans of contemporary romances or dog-centric tales.
An engaging story about a woman and her canine overcoming heartbreak as a pack.Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9997015-2-2
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Refreshingly filled with love rather than sex, this coming-of-age novel examines the human cost of political repression.
A star-crossed romance captures the turmoil of pre-revolutionary Iran in Seraji’s debut.
From the rooftops of Tehran in 1973, life looks pretty good to 17-year-old Pasha Shahed and his friend Ahmed. They’re bright, funny and good-looking; they’re going to graduate from high school in a year; and they’re in love with a couple of the neighborhood girls. But all is not idyllic. At first the girls scarcely know the boys are alive, and one of them, Zari, is engaged to Doctor—not actually a doctor but an exceptionally gifted and politically committed young Iranian. In this neighborhood, the Shah is a subject of contempt rather than veneration, and residents fear SAVAK, the state’s secret police force, which operates without any restraint. Pasha, the novel’s narrator and prime dreamer, focuses on two key periods in his life: the summer and fall of 1973, when his life is going rather well, and the winter of 1974, when he’s incarcerated in a grim psychiatric hospital. Among the traumatic events he relates are the sudden arrest, imprisonment and presumed execution of Doctor. Pasha feels terrible because he fears he might have inadvertently been responsible for SAVAK having located Doctor’s hiding place; he also feels guilty because he’s always been in love with Zari. She makes a dramatic political statement, setting herself on fire and sending Pasha into emotional turmoil. He is both devastated and further worried when the irrepressible Ahmed also seems to come under suspicion for political activity. Pasha turns bitterly against religion, raising the question of God’s existence in a world in which the bad guys seem so obviously in the ascendant. Yet the badly scarred Zari assures him, “Things will change—they always do.”
Refreshingly filled with love rather than sex, this coming-of-age novel examines the human cost of political repression.Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-451-22681-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: NAL/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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