A thoughtful and multifaceted tale of recuperation and reinvention.
A woman’s traumatic illness and recovery prompt her to reexamine her life in this novel.
At the start of Frimmer’s story, 38-year-old teacher Alison Jacobs abruptly collapses, gets rushed to her local hospital, and feels very weak and woozy even after she regains consciousness. Preliminary examinations reveal bleeding in her brain, presenting an urgent need for surgery. Although grave news, there is a silver lining: Her sister’s husband, Grant Kaplan, is an expert neurosurgeon and has a good deal of experience with cases like hers. The operation proceeds, and although it seems successful, it fundamentally changes Alison’s life. Her long healing process almost totally impairs her, leaving her heavily reliant on the in-home caregiver who helps her with everything from eating to getting out of bed and using the bathroom. The novel deftly dramatizes Alison’s experiences with recovery and rehabilitation. During this difficult time, she and her friends are following in the local newspaper the story of a man suing Grant for malpractice. The patient claims he was harmed during exactly the kind of brain operation Grant performed on Alison. This development naturally raises uncomfortable questions about whether or not some of Alison’s own postoperative symptoms are Grant’s fault. Alongside this main tale, Frimmer works in subplots involving Grant and Alison’s niece, Sadie. The author does a very smooth and readable job of shifting the narrative point of view among these three players. Grant is almost immediately revealed as a fairly unsympathetic character, an arrogant showboater with a slightly unfeeling air. “He relished the sound of the pneumatic drill as it tunneled through the bone,” readers are told at one point, “the sharp pop as the scalpel pierced the dura, and the familiar smell of bone dust in the air.” Far more appealing and intriguing is Alison’s transformation, both medical and personal, as the narrative progresses. Frimmer chronicles this multipart drama with warmth and a sharp narrative intelligence, and although Sadie’s plot strand is noticeably weaker than the others, even there the story’s tender humanity saves the day.
A thoughtful and multifaceted tale of recuperation and reinvention.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-95-433203-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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