Tangles by Kay Smith-Blum
This enthralling dual-timeline, dual-viewpoint debut thrusts the reader into twin eras of environmental danger and governmental, corporate, and institutional deception affecting individuals in the vicinity of the notorious Hanford plant. A fact-based and effective combination of tragedy, suspense, and heartbreak, the novel explores the horrifying impacts on health and nature during the early eras of atomic and nuclear experimentation and production. Protagonists Mary and Luke, flawed and driven, are united in their separate missions to expose multiple threats to their family members and the broader community, either directly employed by Hanford or otherwise dependent upon its potentially deadly operations. From the opening pages, they boldly disregard the peril their pursuit of the truth poses to them and their loved ones, and their efforts to expose corruption and malfeasance instill the story with a pervading sense of doom and dread. Through her exquisitely evocative writing and skillful plotting, Smith-Blum achieves a triumph in storytelling that magnificently serves the high purpose her characters fight so hard and so desperately to achieve. (Black Rose Writing, 286 pp., paperback/ebook, December 2024)
Pointe of Pride by Chloe Angyal
In her follow up to Pas de Don’t, her romcom debut, former dancer Chloe Angyal provides an engaging enemies-to-lovers tale set in her native Sydney, Australia. Sparky New York corps de ballet dancer Carly Montgomery puts friendship over prospects for promotion by serving as maid of honor for her bestie, prima ballerina Heather Hays. On her arrival she has an unpleasant encounter with a handsome jerk, whose luggage gets mixed up with hers, and who naturally turns out to be the groom’s best man, Nick Jacobs. His dancing days are long past, his career as professional photographer hasn’t taken off. Carly, committed to her profession, also suffers internal injury that requires extensive physical therapy prohibits penetrative sex
The bickering couple agree to make nice throughout preparation for the nuptials, all the while sparring out of their friends’ presence. Carly taking advantage of Nick’s supposed fame as photographer, enlists him to take dramatic pictures of her in scenic locations in the Sydney environs, with the intention of boosting her Instagram profile. A multitude of followers and enhance popularity, she’s sure, will result in her longed-for rise in the ballet company back home. When carefully concealed secrets are fully revealed, the romance as well as workplace prospects are imperiled.
The pace of the story never flags, Nick and Carly are pleasingly flawed and equally captivating, and the ballet content is well-presented. The result: another winning story from Angyal.
(Amberjack Publishing, 378 pp., paperback/ebook, May 2024)
The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes
The painter is famed British portraitist Thomas Gainsborough, and the daughters are keen observer Peggy and her mentally unstable sister Molly, his favorite subjects from their innocence childhood to their maturity. When he moves the family from rural Suffolk to the fashionable spa city of Bath, Peggy grows ever more protective of Molly, striving to keep parents and others from discovering the seriousness of her malady. She also recognizes her parents’ foibles and faults—an unfaithful father and a stern, social-climbing mother constantly aware that the family fortunes depend upon flattering and pleasing the rising artist’s wealthy and aristocratic patrons.
This is also a dual timeline story, set in an earlier period, as Meg, a desperate country girl, seduces and is impregnated by a German prince, the heir to England’s throne. Her history is woven throughout the novel, as she attempts to trace her royal lover in London and secure the support she believes and her child are owed. Before the conclusion of the Gainsborough girls’ story, her connection to them is clarified.
Howes paints with words as she reveals Peggy’s inner life, her love for and callous betrayal by a musician, and her constant struggle to cover her sister’s mental lapses and save her from the horrors of a madhouse. Molly, chafing at the severe attempts to control her, is determined to prove that she’s destined for a life of her own choosing, but her temporary escape from the family only plunges her deeper into distress.
The author depicts the Georgian era, domestically and socially, with painstaking and evocative detail, and the few lapses in accuracy cannot detract from the power of the writing and the characters, drawn with the same precision as a Gainsborough painting. A tale of devotion taken to extremes, with life-altering consequences, it is sure to please historical fiction fans. (Simon & Schuster, 352 pp., hardcover/ebook/audio, February 2024)
The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Competing on an equestrian team with the daughters of millionaires and billionaires is difficult enough for a girl who isn’t born rich. Add the pressures of Ivy League schooling and uncertainty about what professional path to follow after graduation, and it’s no wonder Yale senior Rosie Macalister is muddled. Her situation worsens when she arrives in the rented Victorian house that she and her upper-crust teammates share and discovers she’s stuck in a double room with a complete stranger. Not only has the lovely and mysterious Annelise apparently stolen the affections of Cressida Tate, Rosie’s best friend, she’s also an enviably skilled rider. But Rosie unexpectedly bonds with the West Coast newcomer, attracted by her warmth and intrigued by her tarot readings. She becomes her roommate’s pupil, friend—and defender, when mistrust severs longstanding friendships.
Reeling from tragedy and loss, Rosie settles for a post-graduation job in finance that is at odds with her longstanding desire to follow her parents’ profession and become a vet. Torn between her desire to achieve wealth and her longing to care for animals, she tries to navigate her way through betrayals, revelations, and a budding romance doomed by her circumstances and conflicts. A twisty plot, the interweaving of tarot cards and lore, the unpredictability of highly strung horses, characters of privilege and of wasted promise, laced with mystery and suspense lead to an impressively satisfying yet bittersweet conclusion. (St. Martin’s Press, 320 pp., hardcover/ebook/audio, February, 2024)
The Still Point by Tammy Greenwood
Movingly told from multiple viewpoints, Greenwood’s novel is a realistic deep dive into the challenging and intensely competitive world of young ballet students and their mothers, who confront the same insecurities and inner agonies as their talented daughters. The catalyst for conflict at Costa del Luna Conservatory of Ballet is rogue French dance star Etienne Bernay, visiting ballet master, who arrives at the academy with a documentary crew. He will direct the annual production of The Nutcracker and will also choose one student to receive a scholarship to the Ballet de Paris Académie. Cue the rivalries.
Ever Henderson, widowed mother of two, has high hopes for her daughter Bea, who spent the summer studying dance in New York. And indeed, Bea is singled out for attention—more so than Savvy Jacobs, the school’s star. Whose ambitious mother Josie, divorced and divorcing again, believes she’s gained an advantage by securing Etienne as tenant of her guest house. Realtor Lindsay Chase, mother of Bea’s best friend Olive, is troubled by her faltering marriage, worried that her husband is cheating, and is dismayed by her daughter’s sudden transfer of loyalties to privileged, unlikable Savvy.
Bea is tortured by memories of her behavior at a late-night party, which resulted in ostracism by her peers. The preferential treatment and starring role given by Etienne, her prominence in the documentary, and a developing romance with a male classmate can’t compensate for the knowledge that she’s responsible for Savvy’s cruelty and her abandonment by Olive. Just as the mothers must face the realities of their own choices and mistakes, the daughters will each pay a price for theirs. Meanwhile, the enigmatic, charismatic disrupter Etienne choreographs a holiday spectacle that will determine the fates of his dancers and their parents. An intimate, brutally honest yet touching depiction of the demands of the art form and the dedication it demands from all involved, those who study and perform as well as the family members who struggle, sacrifice, and support along the way. (Kensington, 304 pp., paperback/ebook, February, 2024)