A lyrical mystery that embraces letting go and living freely.
Ghosts with untold stories and guests with long-buried secrets reside in Mallow Island’s mysterious Dellawisp condos.
Made famous by Roscoe Avanger’s legendary novel Sweet Mallow, quaint Mallow Island, South Carolina, proves a welcome respite for Zoey Hennessey. With her inattentive father and stepmother’s eagerness to convert her bedroom into a crafting oasis, the 18-year-old decided to leave her home in Tulsa to spend the summer before college at her late mother’s old studio on the island. She hopes that the condo, located at the horseshoe-shaped Dellawisp complex, will unearth memories of Paloma, who died 12 years ago in a car accident. Joining Zoey is her imaginary bird, Pigeon, and when they arrive, Zoey is disappointed to discover few traces of her mother…though her new environment proves anything but lonely. Maintained by the elderly Frasier, who is constantly tailed by turquoise dellawisp birds, the condos house a hodgepodge of colorful neighbors, including the burly redheaded chef Mac; the guarded, henna-covered artist Charlotte; the paper-hoarding busybody Lizbeth and her chain-smoking recluse sister, Lucy. When Lizbeth unexpectedly dies the first night of Zoey’s stay, Frasier asks Zoey to clean out her neighbor’s cluttered home. With Charlotte’s help, Zoey is determined to understand the secrets of this eccentric woman, but she soon realizes that Lizbeth may not be the only Dellawisp resident haunted by the past. Allen weaves together an intriguing mystery, following each resident of Dellawisp as they navigate loss and love and uncover what is true and what is real. Charlotte’s story in particular stands out; once beholden to her parents’ religious cult, she hesitates to trust Zoey’s innocence and Mac’s selflessness. Allen breathes life into her characters, those living and those in between, and fashions a narrative that imparts a powerful belief in everlasting memory: “Stories aren’t fiction. Stories are fabric. They’re the white sheets we drape over our ghosts so we can see them.”
A lyrical mystery that embraces letting go and living freely.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2500-1986-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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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