An intriguing story about wealth and power undermined by lack of character development.
A Black billionaire’s unexpected death leads his daughter on a quest to uncover ugly truths about his past.
Prescod made her literary debut with the memoir Token Black Girl (2022), about how growing up Black in a mostly white community in Connecticut led to depression, an estrangement from Black culture, and a serious eating disorder. A veteran of the fashion and beauty industries, she offers a unique perspective on both Black and white spaces, and her first novel reflects some of this hard-earned knowledge. Meet the Carter family: There’s patriarch William Carter, Jr., who rose from humble beginnings to become a self-made billionaire; his wife, Jacqueline, a former actress who chose a comfortable role as a wife and mother over the grind of the spotlight; loyal son Asher, who’s quietly flunking out of Harvard Business School; and daughter Kennedy, an aspiring filmmaker. The Carters are preparing to gather at their massive Martha’s Vineyard estate to celebrate William’s 70th birthday, and Kennedy has been working on a video about her father to be shown at the party. But self-made men often harbor secrets, and when William dies unexpectedly before the event can get underway, an uneasy Kennedy finds herself taking a closer look at her father’s past. She’s unable to stop chasing truths better left hidden, especially about William’s relationship with a mysterious friend called Kofi and their tangled ties to a development in Ghana. The setup is promising and story intriguing; readers will find themselves invested in how the Carters weather the storm of revelations. But Prescod spends too much time telling, not showing. Cliches worm their way into the story—at least two Carters vomit because they’re upset, for example—and the character development never reaches deeper than surface level.
An intriguing story about wealth and power undermined by lack of character development.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781662520129
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mindy's Book Studio
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
BOOK REVIEW
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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