This rewarding tale of battling cancer sparkles with a zestful cast and surprising buoyancy.
A teenager contemplating her future suddenly faces a life-changing illness in this debut novel.
At the age of 16, Madelyn “Madz” Monroe is done with ice skating. It’s been her life for six years, but she’s had enough of the intense training and the countless injuries (“I’m not subjecting myself to this anymore”). While her decision to leave ice skating behind seriously upsets both her coach and her mother, Madz is ready to see what else life has in store for her. Sadly, the lump she feels in her collar bone turns out to be cancer. She can fight it with chemotherapy and possibly radiation, but Madz, who doesn’t want pity, keeps her treatments secret as long as she can. She’s already agreed to teach ice skating to 14-year-old Gracie Cruz, as a return favor to the girl’s handsome older brother, Will, a landscaper. Though initially reluctant to teach Gracie, who’s prone to screaming, Madz soon wants to help the girl, even if she has to find another teacher. And maybe others can, in turn, offer Madz support as she confronts her illness. Maddaleni enriches this absorbing story with a superb cast. Madz, for example, comes with myriad layers; she can be condescending, especially during her first lesson with Gracie, but she quickly garners sympathy as she braves chemotherapy’s harsh side effects. Her generally positive attitude is not only infectious, but reflects the narrative as well. She affectionately dubs one drug the “Pukinator,” and her hospital visits, though brimming with clinical terms, center on her physical and mental resilience. Other characters show three dimensions, too, as readers learn more about Gracie’s “condition”; Will takes on the role of his sister’s guardian; and various individuals further uplift the narrative with unexpected benevolence. The author rounds out this tale with a series of evolving relationships (including Madz and her mother) and, of course, some welcome romance.
This rewarding tale of battling cancer sparkles with a zestful cast and surprising buoyancy.Pub Date: July 10, 2023
ISBN: 9798988116608
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Ponderlit Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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