An accomplished interweaving of character trajectories in the intense world of ballet.
A principal dancer, a dancer-turned-ballet master, and the latter’s teenage daughter face life changes and challenges in this latest installment of Rose’s ballet-centered series.
In 2008, Katrina Devries and Javier Torres, both performers with San Francisco’s West Coast Ballet Theatre, have sex as friends, not lovers, and have a son, Dario, together. A few years later, Javier announces that he’s moving out of their shared house to the other side of the city to live with his lover, Brent. He also makes major changes to the dance company’s upcoming gala: He will now partner with a younger female dancer, and Katrina will be part of another dance, to be created by a disturbingly nasty guest male choreographer. Katrina leans on the support of her friends, including April Manning, a former dancer who’s now a ballet master and the sole woman in the company’s leadership. The arrival of David Lavigne, a personable piano accompanist, also disrupts the company’s dynamics. April’s 14-year-old daughter, Kylie Garvey, who loves classical music and feels like an outcast in her high school, develops a crush on David, while he yearns to break through Katrina’s reserve. Then Kylie commits a frightening act that tears Katrina and April apart. Will they be able to move past their problems to transform the company’s gala? In this fourth book in Rose’s Ballet Theatre Chronicles, she skillfully continues to explore the sometimes-obsessive personalities and preoccupations of the members of her lively, fictional dance company. For example, April, the protagonist of her previous entry, Ballet Orphans (2021), makes an observation at one point that shows the difficulty she has seeing beyond her chosen profession: She ruefully notes that her “non-dancing daughter,” Kylie, has “the foot type all ballet dancers coveted.” Katrina, the lead character here, is also the most intriguing; Rose crafts a lovely backstory that effectively shows how Katrina is empowered by tapping into a dance art—belly dancing—that she first experienced and loved as a child.
Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2024
ISBN: 979-8988521211
Page Count: -
Publisher: Classical Girl Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 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
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
