A cozy, if tepid, story of self-reflection and growth—with a little yoga.
Three adults form and navigate their desires in this debut novel.
Nate Dart meets Lulu Betancourt when he takes her yoga class. It’s 1999, and Nate and his girlfriend, Nora Lester, are both approaching 40. Their relationship is at a crossroads: She wants to have a baby, and he’s focused on his thesis. When Nora gets the opportunity to go to Finland to work for Nokia (one of many winking Y2K references), she jumps at it, and they break up. Lulu has been having nightmares related to her traumatic childhood with an alcoholic father. Nora, meanwhile, searches while on her first trip to Europe for a partner who’s willing to have a baby. Soon Lulu and Nate find themselves sharing more than a yoga class, and they do genuinely complement each other. The most entertaining thread in the novel, which unfolds from the trio’s alternating perspectives, is that of Nora’s experiences with the carousel of suitors she encounters on her fish-out-of-water quest to get pregnant. Nate’s story is the least compelling; he struggles to give his scholarly work some measure of emotional insight while examining his own emotional blockages. Often he doesn’t seem like a worthy partner for either Lulu or Nora. Lulu’s personal journey to cope with her past, which includes a trip to New Orleans to connect with her mother’s African American family, overshadows her romantic life. Fish has created some interesting dynamics of adulthood amid Y2K tension, and she ably explores the shifting nature of relationships without casting anyone as the villain. Ultimately, each finds their own way without sabotaging anyone else’s happiness. Toward the conclusion, Fish tends to rush the character development, with exposition that distances us from Lulu, Nora, and Nate as they tie up loose ends, though cheeky bouts of dialogue abound: “Tell Offendorf he’s an unethical slut” and “I thank the god of hormones for our chemistry.”
A cozy, if tepid, story of self-reflection and growth—with a little yoga.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-60489-308-3
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2022
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
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