A poignant slice-of-life drama about comforting one’s inner child and moving forward.
Levan’s debut novel tells a story of one woman’s past trauma and how it affects her present.
Twenty-something Allegra Gil is a Miami-based trauma counselor, and a woman who effectively exists in two very different worlds. In the present day, she lives with her idyllic husband, Benito, and their two young children. But she can’t escape her past with her abusive parents, including a narcissistic mother who says things such as “You have no idea how much having children will hold you back from the things you love.” Her parents are still making her feel small, even into her adulthood; Allegra has, at some level, enabled such behavior in order to keep the peace. That is, until she discovers a letter that changes everything: “I grappled with what to do. Who to tell. What to make of it all.” It’s the catalyst for her to finally start shaking off her anxieties and fear, embrace spirituality, and find courage to break a cycle that threatens her own children. Levan does not shy away from the difficult, yet relatable, issues that plague her protagonist––from emotional abuse and body shaming to miscarriage and life-threatening illness. She shows how Allegra pulls together the hazy pieces of her life and reconciles herself with the fact that all of them, good and bad, have made her into the person she is today. As a character, she’s a quiet presence, but readers will root for her during her slow journey to emotional resolution. Throughout, Levan seems more concerned with detail and discovery, placing moments of realism and characterization ahead of advancing the plot. Anyone willing to travel with her, often through memories that flood into her present life, will appreciate an acute portrait of a woman reckoning with her own history; it may even inspire some readers to take note of the boundaries in their own lives.
Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9798888454190
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Regalo Press
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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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