Readers will root for Fran to turn her life around in this cozy, accessible novel.
A novelist eschews romance while on a quest for self-discovery in Christie’s series entry.
Several years ago, after dozens of rejections, Fran Carter found an agent and a publisher who loved her manuscript, and Love in the Moonlight became a surprise romance bestseller. Now, after two follow-up novels, which didn’t sell as well as the first, the middle-aged author suffers from writer’s block. It’s difficult for her to tap into the thrill of romance ever since she discovered that her former partner was unfaithful—and he didn’t even stick around to discuss their relationship. A disconsolate Fran leaves her San Francisco home and takes to the road to find some artistic inspiration—looking for “work time, productive writing time, the kind of time that would make my agent and publisher happy and keep my mind off my personal disaster.” She finds an eccentric bed-and-breakfast, the Whale Inn, where she spends a week befriending the owner, connecting with townspeople at local events, and working on her next novel. During the week, she discovers a whole new Fran—one who’s more independent and confident. As she takes more control over her life, she finds the courage to embrace change and conjure a no-nonsense protagonist for her new book: the character is open to romantic love, but also happy and successful on her own. For Fran herself, though, there’s only chaste soul-searching. Overall, Fran’s journey of discovery results in a comforting narrative, featuring a main character whom readers are sure to find relatable. There’s nothing flashy about the prose, but it’s solid and evocative throughout, which makes for a satisfying read. Although the pace is sometimes slow and there’s a relative lack of drama, Fran’s authentic self-realizations manage to propel the story forward. There are scenes that feel clichéd (one section, in which Fran gets a makeover with a new haircut, a more flattering wardrobe, and stylish makeup feels especially familiar), but they could easily be interpreted as knowing winks for genre fans.
Readers will root for Fran to turn her life around in this cozy, accessible novel.Pub Date: May 24, 2024
ISBN: 9798350942248
Page Count: 302
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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