A gentle, frothy take on classic romance set pieces.
A lovely Irishwoman immigrates to Kentucky in this debut historical novel.
Arrabella “Ella” McCarthy expects to marry her childhood friend and remain in Ireland with her loving family for the rest of her life. But there are limited prospects for a talented Irishwoman in 1897, so when her American uncle proposes naming her his heir in exchange for moving to Kentucky and marrying a neighbor’s wealthy son, Ella can’t refuse. Her major consolation is that she’ll be able to bring four of her beloved horses to her new homeland. But to do so, she must survive a dangerous ocean crossing where unlucky circumstances make her a target for harassment and assault. If readers know that Ella disguises herself as a man in response, they will begin to understand the contours of this adventure. The first of several romantic options comes to her aid as well, and he soon admires her beauty, resilience, and humor. Landing in America presents Ella with two more dubious romantic choices in the form of the Brannock brothers, Padraig and Sean. The latter is Ella’s intended, and she soon realizes that as sons of a recently deceased hotel tycoon and landowner, they have a world of expectations on their shoulders. Sean copes by drinking and gambling, and Padraig locks his feelings away to better perform his many duties. Violence, passion, and easily avoidable miscommunications ensue before Ella can comfortably call herself the mistress of her new Kentucky estate. An early scene in Gentry’s romance where Ella’s Irish Catholic mother frankly discusses the pleasures of sex alerts readers that love and marriage will be framed in a contemporary, recognizable manner. Ella herself is a mix of a 21st-century woman and a historical creation; situations are crafted to display her bravery, brains, and compassion, but this unblemished perfection can read like a portrait of a saint. Despite these motley tones, this series opener presents a beautiful thesis: that true love shapes people to notice others’ needs before their own. Darker events near the end suggest an intriguing, if straightforward, continuation of the saga.
A gentle, frothy take on classic romance set pieces.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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