A compelling but lopsided read.
The alpha of a leopard pack is enthralled with his mysterious pregnant neighbor.
Remi Denier was abandoned by his father and raised by a single mother who died when he was a teenager. After restless years of race car driving and loneliness, Remi accepted his dominant nature and created RainFire, a pack located deep in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains. He was joined by others interested in the challenge of building a pack from scratch. While scouting nearby land the pack was hoping to annex, Remi discovers heavily pregnant Auden Scott in a newly constructed cabin. Auden is a Psy, a race of humans with psychic abilities. Auden has a peculiar specialty: When touching objects, she can “read” the thoughts and feelings of anyone who has previously touched those items. Pregnancy has amplified her skill, and the machine-made cabin has been designed to give respite from the flood of feedback that overwhelms her Psy senses. Something about her scent disturbs Remi, but as an alpha, he also feels a deep-seated urge to protect Auden and her unborn child. Auden eventually confides the truth in Remi: Her powerful Psy parents experimented on her brain when she was a teenager, and her pregnancy seems to be reviving old symptoms. She experiences long blocks of missing time and is afraid her personality may have split in two. Even more frightening, she’s sure her doctors have sinister plans for her baby. The romance between Remi and Auden is an afterthought; Singh’s novel is focused on the continuation of a multibook arc describing the challenges facing the Psy as they race to save the millions of minds connected to their failing neural net. In previous books in this long-running series, Singh kept the romance arc at the center, but this installment feels noticeably off balance.
A compelling but lopsided read.Pub Date: July 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593440735
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
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