A military thriller with slight characters and high stakes.
The U.S. and China square off at sea in Bultema’s debut military novel.
U.S. and Malaysian naval forces are conducting joint military exercises in the South China Sea when, out of nowhere, a Chinese destroyer appears alongside them. The ship ignores warnings to keep its distance, instead sending back its own ominous message: “Attention, all military vessels, this is Chinese territory. China has sovereignty over these islands. You are in violation of our region. The Chinese government demands that you leave the area immediately.” The U.S. and Malaysian ships retreat, and no guns are fired…for the moment. It’s clear that it’s only a matter of time, however, until China’s increasingly aggressive tactics lead to open war. As sailors across the American Navy prepare for conflict—from a lowly recent Annapolis graduate to the president of the U.S. himself—China’s top officials believe that a decadeslong goal is finally within their reach: the conquest of Taiwan. This will require them to launch what one Chinese general calls “our version of Pearl Harbor”: the complete neutralization of the American Navy through the use of hypersonic glide missiles. Can American forces scramble fast enough to preserve their domination of the seas, or will this hot spot boil over into the next world war? Bultema’s prose is as straightforward as the characters who populate his pages, like the typically stoic Captain John “Hard Ass” Samson: “Like a shark who never stops moving to stay alive, the captain of the Nimitz was highly uncomfortable being tied up to land…No, he preferred the open seas where the big carrier was most at home and could use its horsepower to outrun almost any threat.” The cast is large—and, to some extent, interchangeable—with less focus on individuals than on the hardware and protocols that govern their lives. This is a book for true military buffs, for whom the deadly dance of two superpowers requires little ornamentation in terms of interpersonal relationships or psychological drama.
A military thriller with slight characters and high stakes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 423
Publisher: P.D. Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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