An entertaining and uncomplicated tale of two young lovers.
Two successful young people meet on a flight from North America to India and stumble down a star-crossed path to love in Hudson-Maggio’s contemporary romance.
Indian Tej Mayur and Indian American Harlow Kennedy are both caught up in their fast-paced lifestyles. Tej is the extremely successful owner of the restaurant Bombay Baby in Atlanta, and Harlow works in Toronto, managing coding and app-creation projects around the world. Both are also eligible marriage material, which means that there’s intense pressure from family members for each of them to get hitched soon. Tej fends off sultry women who are only after his fortune, while Harlow receives an unwanted proposal from an unappealing bachelor. Then Tej and Harlow serendipitously meet when Harlow is assigned to cover a Bombay Baby project for her work. The two are instantly attracted to each other, but there’s much that stands in the way of their getting together, including issues involving ego, family, and multiple engagements. However, a matchmaker whom Harlow consults notes her belief that “the universe revolves according to the laws of karma,” and when Tej’s family mandates that he wed a woman who was chosen for him within a matter of days, he has to decide whether or not he will play with his fate and test his own karma. Overall, readers will find this to be a gratifying and heartwarming story, featuring two characters that they will be likely to find endearing, despite their flaws. Each chapter alternates between the two main players’ perspectives as they grapple with their futures; this format results in a delightful and easygoing read that some will find to be reminiscent of Indian romance films. The story does lack a certain complexity, and some readers may find it a bit too lightweight, but its inclusion of customs of Indian marriage and wedding culture effectively bring it to life.
An entertaining and uncomplicated tale of two young lovers.Pub Date: July 1, 2022
ISBN: 979-8886806854
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Paper House
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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