A rich, engrossing portrait of a mother and daughter fencing their way toward a truce.
A woman’s life collapses after she reconnects with her brilliant but cold mother in Gentin’s knotty novel of broken families.
Jessica Harmon, an unhappy 30-year-old book editor in New York City, breaks out of her rut in the worst possible way by quitting her job and breaking up with her perfect boyfriend when his marriage proposal triggers her fear of commitment. Seeking the roots of her dysfunction, she accompanies her poetry professor mother, Cynthia, on a nationwide tour after she wins a coveted prize for her new collection of verse. Cynthia is a great poet who wows fans with her readings, but her daughter knows her as “the most self-obsessed person ever to walk the halls of academia or the streets of the Upper West Side.” When Jessica was younger, Cynthia told her a dubious story about her father getting killed by falling debris before she was born; brought home a parade of lovers; left her with the housekeeper while gallivanting across Europe; and, worst of all, discouraged Jessica’s literary aspirations: “‘You’re a competent writer.’ She paused. ‘Talent?’ Cynthia answered her own question with a shrug.” Then Cynthia is felled by a debilitating stroke, which prompts a reboot of Jessica’s life as she cares for her mother, rekindles a romance with a college flame, and investigates her parentage and Cynthia’s traumatic freshman year at Yale. Gentin’s yarn centers on an intriguingly conflicted mother-daughter duo—both prickly, proud, insecure, and secretly wounded. Cynthia’s transformation is gripping as she goes from someone with an intimidating command of language to a person whose brain can barely summon words to express thoughts. Gentin conveys the pair’s story in vivid, evocative, sensual prose, as when Jessica observes Cynthia’s hypnotic effect on both men and women: “it was Cynthia’s body language that mesmerized….with a penetrating glance, a slight tilt of her hips, or the momentary brush of her fingertip on her breast—so fleeting you thought you’d imagined it, except your mouth is dry and you can barely swallow.” Readers will root for Jessica to emerge from Cynthia’s shadow—and forgive her, as well.
A rich, engrossing portrait of a mother and daughter fencing their way toward a truce.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781645386209
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Ten16 Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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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