A slow-burning but compelling love story with flawed characters and complex family dynamics.
In Rosenthal’s novel, a young woman uncovers the truth about her past, and finds the love she always wanted in an unexpected place.
When 26-year-old Prisca Weld attends her father’s 70th birthday party in Brooklyn, New York, she has no idea how her life is about to change—first for the worse, then for the better. She’s long been committed to helping her domineering father, Don, run the family construction business. Things are complicated by the fact that her dad and her older brother, Asher, are in constant conflict, and that the siblings’ narcissistic mother left their family long ago to pursue a television acting career.Meanwhile,Prisca’s life is in a rut; she seems to be just going through the motions without any sense of individuality or purpose. When her ex-boyfriend from high school, Nick Fontaine, suddenly appears at Don’s party, she’s confronted with her unresolved feelings for him; they’d been discussing marriage when he’d suddenly left to go to Las Vegas years ago. When he tells her some shocking news, she’s distraught, and Tim Aldrich, a surgeon who’s a family friend, is there to pick up the pieces, which wins her heart. As the story goes on, it gradually reveals Prisca’s family’s backstory, and her relationship with Nick becomes even more complicated; she also grapples with sudden loss. Rosenthal delivers a dialogue-driven story that’s full of drama, featuring multiple characters with traumatic pasts. Along the way, the story addresses a range of difficult issues, including alcoholism, domestic abuse, suicide, bullying, and grief. It dives headfirst into family drama at the outset, rapidly introducing each character and effectively hinting at their emotional baggage. Some of the interactions feel exaggerated and a bit jarring at first, and the reader may be slow to warm to the main players. However, the author makes sure to carefully weave the various relationships together, and the story becomes more engaging and complex as it unfolds.
A slow-burning but compelling love story with flawed characters and complex family dynamics.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9798990833128
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Tribeca Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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