An uneven but ultimately worthwhile story of personal growth.
A middle-aged TV producer returns to her ancestral home off the coast of Italy and confronts a trauma from her youth in De Palma’s novel.
Anna has been working on a reality show called Bride-to-Be for several seasons, but the program’s struggles are escalating. When plans to film the finale in a beautiful vacation spot get derailed by an earthquake, Anna’s well-intentioned but meddling assistant, Cheryl, convinces the team they should move the shoot to Anna’s deceased aunt’s home on the idyllic Italian island of Ischia. Though Anna is adamantly opposed, her team is excited by the optics, and before she knows what’s hit her, she’s nine times zones away from her California home on a hydrofoil to Ischia. The narrative then flashes back to 1984, when teenage Anna spent a fateful summer as her aunt’s ward on the island. It’s clear something terrible happened that summer, but adult Anna wants to avoid those memories at all costs. As the story alternates between past and present, Anna struggles to save Bride-to-Be while also confronting the difficult losses and revelations she faced in her youth. In this well-paced, plot-driven novel, the narrative’s greatest strength lies in its lush and evocative descriptions of Ischia—readers will be able to taste the garlic in the air and feel the pebbly sand between their toes (“At a café, we pass a group of men arguing about politics. Mostly, the corso is filled with women out buying the fresh meat, cheese and pasta they will use for the pranzo, the midday meal”). Anna is well developed and full of complex, layered emotions; she shines brightest in the chapters detailing her youth. The present-day timeline feels like part of a different, more topical story, with its frazzled Hollywood TV execs, annoying logistical issues, and overly aggressive groom. While the flashbacks are full of ripe emotions, the modern-day scenes leave genuine sentiments fighting for space on the page. Similarly, the TV-production problems receive disproportionate attention, serving mainly as a distraction from the more compelling examination of Anna’s attempts to reconcile her unsatisfying present with difficult moments from her past. Even so, the author deftly tackles complex issues ranging from self-discovery and loss to identity-building and healing.
An uneven but ultimately worthwhile story of personal growth.Pub Date: July 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781941637920
Page Count: 268
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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