An ambitious but uneven novel with strong-willed characters.
A single mother revisits memories of her haunting past to prevent her teen daughter from committing to a terrible man in Foyt’s novel.
The book opens on Florida’s Sanibel Island in 1985, where Angel del Corazón lives with her daughter, Faith, who’s approaching her high school graduation. Angel has devoted the past 18 years to raising her child and ensuring she has both the grades and the finances to attend college. Faith has always lived up to expectations, but recently, she’s been lying about her whereabouts. The tension between mother and daughter comes to a head when Faith stumbles onto correspondence revealing that her father, Santiago—whom she’s never known—is not dead, as Angel had always claimed. As a result, Faith declares her distaste for her mother and her intention to reunite with her dad. Readers learn through several flashbacks that Angel’s history with Santiago was rocky and violent; her decision to lie to Faith was based entirely on a desire to protect her. When Angel meets Faith’s new boyfriend, a controlling older man, she decides to come clean about her past to keep her daughter from making a mistake; she begins revealing her story through a series of letters, but is she already too late to make a difference? Foyt’s story alternates between sections in 1985 Sanibel, told in the third person, and sections on Angel’s past decades earlier, narrated by Angel herself. Interspersed are vignettes about mermaids and sea goddesses, related to myths and religious teachings that Angel learned in her youth. The novel gets off to a slow start, revealing key information slowly and sporadically. Eventually, though, the story becomes more insightful and compelling as the author delves deep into issues such as family dysfunction, abusive relationships, and self-doubt. However, as the author attempts to combine a coming-of-age tale with elements of romance, familial drama, and magical realism, it becomes needlessly complicated. Still, by the end, readers will be disarmed by the two endearing and fiercely loyal female leads.
An ambitious but uneven novel with strong-willed characters.Pub Date: July 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64786-455-2
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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