An angst-filled love story about the value of growth and understanding.
A comedian and a musician just might be a perfect match, if only they can get the timing right.
Jess Henson meets Tom Delaney when he literally runs into her, knocking her to the ground outside an Indian restaurant in Edinburgh. She’s an up-and-coming comedian who dreams of having her big break, while he’s in a band that hopes to find success. Despite their movieworthy meet-cute, Tom runs off, squashing any hope for a romance. They meet again when they’re both featured at an artist showcase. They each have their own problems—Jess has a distrust of most people because her dad split when she was a kid, while Tom has severe anxiety that causes him to say the wrong things, self-medicate with alcohol, and even make up a fake girlfriend so his band mates won’t think he’s pathetic—but despite their communication problems, they feel a connection and spend a perfect evening together. That is, until they get jumped by some drunk football fans and Tom ends up in the hospital. Jess comes along, but then Tom’s best friend shows up and mentions Tom’s (fake) girlfriend. Tom is too doped up on painkillers to set the record straight, and Jess leaves, thus beginning a yearslong string of near misses and almost-kisses for Jess and Tom. Each time they reconnect, there’s something in the way—Jess’ bitterness, Tom’s anxiety, one of them seeing someone else. As their careers take off, they both have to figure out exactly what success means for them—and whether it involves each other. Nicholls writes with warmth and humor, giving Jess and Tom fully developed lives, friends, and families. It’s satisfying to watch them grow over the years, though the personal failings that keep them apart can be frustrating to read as their would-be relationship stalls again and again. Nicholls isn’t afraid to let Tom and Jess get mean and deal with personal tragedy (such as Tom’s musician grandfather’s death, Tom’s alcoholism and anxiety, and Jess’ relationship with her absent father), giving the story a realism that anchors the lighter aspects of their romance.
An angst-filled love story about the value of growth and understanding.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984826-89-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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 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
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