An original and thoughtful entry in the contemporary romance genre.
A visit to a resort turns into a life-changing experience for an entrepreneur and the woman he loves in this novel.
All Nakia Noble wants during her vacation is peace and quiet, but her sister, Kirby, thinks she should find a man and have fun. Nakia catches the eye of Caleb Jones, a successful entrepreneur and outdoorsman. Their connection is instant, and they spend a passionate evening together. Caleb wants to turn their mutual attraction into a romance. While Nakia is drawn to him, she is reluctant to pursue a relationship because he is white and she is African-American. She believes it is easier to marry someone who “sees the world the way you do.” Several weeks later, he visits her family’s resort and discovers their link is still intense. While exploring a cave, Nakia and Caleb fall asleep and wake up in a country called Acirema in an alternative universe. In Acirema, Nakia is part of a special police unit tasked with rounding up weeds, or the oppressed. Caleb is an integral part of the Resistance. As they try to find a way back to their reality, they develop an unshakeable bond, one that is tested as they are pursued by a dangerous enemy. This latest novel from Robinson (OCAAT, 2017, etc.) is an ambitious combination of romance and speculative fiction bolstered by dynamic characters, well-drawn settings, and a propulsive narrative. Nakia and Caleb are strong protagonists whose relationship anchors the story. The author establishes their physical connection in the opening chapters through playful, flirtatious dialogue and scenes that crackle with erotic tension. Nakia’s views on race and relationships inform her vision of her ideal partner, and her reluctance to pursue a romance with Caleb is sensitively handled. They are surrounded by a well-developed cast of supporting characters, including Nakia’s eccentric Uncle Wallace and Kirby. Robinson is particularly adept at creating vivid settings. The contrast between the tranquility of Nakia’s family’s resort and the grim, ravaged Acirema is striking, and the two lovers’ journey is gripping and suspenseful.
An original and thoughtful entry in the contemporary romance genre.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9964389-7-1
Page Count: 340
Publisher: ARTwo Publishers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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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