An engaging and often skillfully written romance.
A young Oregonian woman navigates her parents’ divorce and her own romantic complications in a coming-of-maturity novel.
In 2017, Elle Fox is a 23-year-old would-be writer living in a suburban town near Portland, Oregon. While waiting for her career as a novelist to begin, she’s taken a job at the Portland Diamond jewelry company, where she works with “glittering, timeless things.” She’s also healing from her parents’ recent split and from the dramatic collapse, five years ago, of her intense relationship with the erratic Scott Darcy, who worked at her father’s auto repair shop. Elle hasn’t crossed paths with Scott since then—until one June morning, when they run into each other in a Starbucks parking lot. As a result, Elle is thrown into emotional turmoil once again, so she accepts her friend Kacey’s invitation to a July 4th beach house party on the Oregon coast, looking for escape. The weekend doesn’t prove to be the carefree getaway she’d hoped, though, as Scott shows up as well. To make matters worse, the handsome, wealthy Noah, on whom Elle has a crush, turns out to be friends with Elle’s estranged father—whoalsoshows up at the coast. Over the course of this book, Kraft’s brightly humorous narrative skillfully spins out Elle’s story, hopping between tantalizing sections set in 2012 and 2017. This narrative structure gives the work a dynamic sense of suspense that meshes nicely with Elle’s own inability to face the traumas of her past. However, the protagonist’s repeated unwillingness to listen to Scott as he tries to explain himself, and their verbal sparring in general, gets tiresome, and the book’s Jane Austen references feel forced and unnecessary. That said, the reader will be drawn in by the vivid characters and by writing that’s sprightly in its evocative descriptions; for example, a young woman is said to have an “athletic vampire look,” and boxes of car parts are described as “stacked against the wall like a losing game of Tetris.”
An engaging and often skillfully written romance.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-519749-62-6
Page Count: 363
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
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