A fun read that’s perfect for lovers of pop music, classic books, and romantic comedies.
A semiforgotten singer seeks love and a new hit song in this debut from Hoffs, the co-founder of the Bangles.
Thirty-three-year-old Jane Start is afraid she might already be a washed-up one-hit wonder. Ten years ago, she found success with a cover of a song by the enigmatic rock star Jonesy. But she hasn’t had a hit since, and now she finds herself so desperate for work that she’s playing a private gig at a bachelor party. Her manager and best friend, Pippa, sends Jane to London to recuperate from the humiliation of singing karaoke to a group of drunk bachelors and the pain of being recently dumped by her boyfriend of four years. On the plane, Jane meets an Oxford literature professor named Tom Hardy, and the two manage to charm each other with their in-flight conversation. Impulsively, Jane kisses him, and the two exchange numbers before they part. When Jane gets to London, her life becomes all about another unexpected connection—Jonesy himself wants Jane to perform at his upcoming show at the Royal Albert Hall. Jane needs the work, but the idea of performing in front of such a large crowd, and with the same mysterious superstar who was such a big part of her early career, gives her pause. When she finally hears from Tom again, the two of them fall into a heady and intoxicating relationship. But Jane starts to wonder how much she really knows about Tom and whether the figurative ghosts of his ex-girlfriends might haunt his home and his heart. She also wonders if she can ever separate herself from her hit song of 10 years ago and the man who was behind it. Hoffs writes with a snappy wit that recalls rom-com favorites like Bridget Jones’s Diary. There are the expected musical references (each chapter begins with a song title, and Jane and Tom bond over their favorite music), but there are many literature references, too—most notably to Jane Eyre and Rebecca.
A fun read that’s perfect for lovers of pop music, classic books, and romantic comedies.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780316409315
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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