An engaging novel that hooks readers in with a fast-paced story of forbidden love.
In Callahan’s novel, a 39-year-old woman tries to figure out her place in her husband’s family.
In 2018, as the story opens, April Simone and her two children travel from Upstate New York to her father-in-law’s house in Massachusetts on Cape Cod for a family reunion. There, she’s met by her husband, Al, a sportswriter, and an old flame—her brother-in-law, Oliver. She and Oliver have found ways to exist in each other’s presence since she married Al, who is the only family member aware of his wife and his brother’s romantic history: “Aside from holidays, their annual Cape Cod reunions were the only time April laid eyes on Oliver, each vacation a year farther from the man she was with in Ireland.” However, the week that follows brings up old questions about what she really wants and deserves. Al is an alcoholic and philanderer who, despite his flaws, truly loves April. Oliver is an accomplished musician who appears, at first, to be in a happy marriage. The story jumps back and forth in time to tell tales of a troubled youth, the aforementioned trip to Ireland, a love letter, and April and Al’s convenient wedding. For April, being with Oliver would mean breaking up a family that includes her beloved adopted niece, Phoebe. However, staying with Al means humiliation. Meanwhile, her adolescent children are also finding out more about themselves as they come of age in a family whose sense of peace is rocky at best. Many passages in Callahan’s novel read as if they were first written as a play, as the narrative drifts from room to room in the single Cape Cod house with a strong emphasis on dialogue; as a result, although the book is on the lengthy side, it proceeds at a fairly quick pace. The story falls into tropes of family-centered dramas that many readers will find familiar, but its treatment of issues such as infidelity has enough nuance to catch and keep the reader’s attention until the end. Overall, the novel’s straightforwardly dramatic aspects, and its clear sense of forward momentum, give it the feel of a diverting beach or vacation read.
An engaging novel that hooks readers in with a fast-paced story of forbidden love.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781662517570
Page Count: 331
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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