An often engaging tribute to firefighters that’s sweet and sad, by turns.
A firefighter and his wife cope with cancer in Bell’s novel, set at the beginning of the 21st century.
Katie Garrett, a second grade teacher, is getting ready for her first day of school when a co-worker upsets her by telling her that she spotted Katie’s husband at the grocery store “having a good time” with an attractive blond woman. Katie’s husband, Andy, works as a firefighter, emergency medical technician, and part-time delivery person; his actual secret is that he’s been having health problems he hasn’t told his wife about. This pain is causing him to act erratically; Katie soon suspects that, even if he’s not cheating on her, something is definitely up. Andy finally decides to go to a doctor and is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He stalls on telling his wife, but Katie finally confronts him; he reveals the truth, which she takes surprisingly well. Word gets out to others when a nurse unethically informs people of Andy’s diagnosis. (A secondary plot follows a romance between the nurse and a rookie at the fire station.) There are a lot of saccharine-sweet scenes of Katie and Andy affirming their love for each other, and a great deal of the narrative is also devoted to Andy’s treatment. His chief thinks the cancer was caused by exposure to toxic chemicals on the job, and in this way, the author meets her stated goal of providing a tribute to firefighters who face a wide range of dangers. Overall, this is a heartfelt and skillfully written novel, and the details of Andy’s time on the job are vivid and realistic: “a sudden loud boom, followed quickly by a wave of pressure, propelled all three firefighters off their feet….All Andy could see through his mask from where he’d been thrown was a wall of orange.” There are also some nicely written scenes with Andy at the firehouse that highlight the complex relationships between the firefighters. Readers also get glimpses of Katie’s life as a teacher, but they’re not quite as compelling.
An often engaging tribute to firefighters that’s sweet and sad, by turns.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 9781736560426
Page Count: 482
Publisher: Day Agency Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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