An uneven set of stories that’s sometimes entertaining and other times troubling.
Griffin offers a collection of four novellas, each featuring a couple that must overcome personal obstacles to make way for love.
The first story, “No Regrets,” opens with a literal bang—Darien Francis, a small-business owner, finds herself in the middle of a bank robbery alongside security guard Richard Li. Afterward, she quickly falls for his easygoing and accommodating nature but finds herself held back by memories of her late lover and the brutality she experienced during the robbery. In the second story, “Probation,” Shane Kenniston, a former youth orchestra teacher, was accused of sexual assault by a 15-year-old girl, resulting in the loss of his job and the destruction of his social life; things become more complicated when he begins dating his former student’s sister, Beth, without initially realizing who she is. Following this is “The Shape of Life,” about a man named David and a single mother named Kate, whose life revolves around caring for her daughter with muscular dystrophy. The final story, “House Hunters,” concerns a group of friends: Frank, a real estate agent estranged from his young daughter; Gia and Andrea, financially successful newlyweds; and Kayla, a woman who believes all men are “useless.” These novellas often offer fun romantic plots with happy endings. However, they sometimes delve too deeply into issues that seem beyond the scope of brief stories. For example, some discussions of race between Darien, a White woman, and Richard, an East Asian man, come across as strained and excessive, as when he earnestly tells her, “I’ll show you how I go about dating Caucasian girls.” However, the storyline between Shane and Beth is the most problematic, presenting a 30-year-old teacher who slept with a teenage girl as sympathetic, while vilifying the girl he slept with. The series’ third-person narration occasionally offers patronizing or objectifying internal monologues, with little attempt to critique such mentalities: “What was it with women, that they thought you shared some kind of relationship the minute things got physical?”
An uneven set of stories that’s sometimes entertaining and other times troubling.Pub Date: April 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781509248827
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Deeply moving and emotional.
A hockey player falls in love with his tutor.
Matt “Freddy” Fredderic is the life of the party at Waterfell University. He’s a starter on the hockey team and can have any girl on campus—but he’s also in danger of failing out if he can’t improve his grades in math and biology. His ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia make him eligible for university tutoring services, and Ro Shariff is his newly assigned tutor. Ro had a crush on Freddy freshman year but convinced herself that she’s over it now, in her senior year. She’s been in an on-again, off-again relationship with a guy named Tyler for the past two years, but he’s manipulative, borderline abusive, and probably cheating on her. Ro is desperate for love and affection and still suffers from bouts of intense homesickness. She and Freddy develop a tentative friendship even though they couldn’t be more different on the surface—he’s a popular, gregarious athlete to her quiet, introverted academic. Ro sees beyond Freddy’s persona as a dumb jock, while he recognizes that she feels lonely and like an outsider. When Freddy swoops in to rescue Ro after an ugly disagreement with Tyler, the two admit that their feelings for each other are more romantic than friendly. Corinne’s second novel is an emotional powerhouse. Ro and Freddy share everything with each other: fears of not being good enough for their friends, details of their harmful previous romantic relationships, and the deep feelings of grief related to illness and loss of parents. They have to learn to trust themselves and each other in the midst of the pressures that come with transitioning from college to adulthood. Their evolution from friends to lovers is a classic slow burn, and it makes for an angsty and deeply affecting read.
Deeply moving and emotional.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781668068489
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
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