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ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT

Name: ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT
Author: Tina L. Hook
ISBN: 978-1470113216

by Tina L. Hook ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 2012

Enchanting, though the desire for an enthralling tale might not be fulfilled.

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Be careful what you wish for: For good or ill, magic comets fulfill the wishes of three women.

Restless, unhappy and full of desire, three very different women look up to the night sky and each make a wish on their own passing comet. Grace, jealous of her best friend’s charmed life, is granted the power to make men fall in love with her; Skylar, embarrassed of being poor, is given the power to bring money and success into her life; and Alina, haunted by her sister’s death, is bestowed the revenge-based power to undo the lives of others. For a short time, these newfound powers fulfill the women’s desires. Grace meets a wonderful man who dotes on her and buys her anything she desires. Skylar also meets a man, who promises to take care of her. And Alina, once Skylar’s high school friend, is put in the perfect place to get revenge on the friend that abandoned her. Hook impressively handles her three main characters, making each feel distinct and equally important. Grace’s, Skylar’s and Alina’s lives intersect at different points in the novel in a multitude of different ways. Grace falls for Liam, who has been in love with Skylar since high school, although he’s used Alina to fulfill his own needs; Alina crosses paths with Johnny, Skylar’s high school flame, who may just have his own comet-given powers; and Skylar befriends Grace, who happened to once work for the love of Skylar’s life, Darren. Despite a promising premise, Hook’s narrative is somewhat aimless and underdeveloped. There are lovely moments when Hook reaches for deeper meanings, as when Grace realizes the interconnectedness of everything, or in Alina’s struggle to free herself from Johnny. But all too often, Hook’s narrative revolves merely around how these women define themselves in relation to the men in their lives. Nonetheless, the scene of Grace’s wedding highlights the novel, as does the comets’ return.

Enchanting, though the desire for an enthralling tale might not be fulfilled.

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2012

ISBN: 978-1470113216

Page Count: 336

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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by Kristin Hannah

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.