cover image Hearts on a String

Hearts on a String

Kris Radish, . . Bantam, $15 (322pp) ISBN 978-0-553-38475-8

In Radish's unsatisfying latest (after Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA ), five women meet, bond, and overcome personal troubles. The women meet in a Tampa, Fla., airport bathroom as a giant storm shuts down the airport. The women decide to make the best of the delay and wait it out in a luxury hotel suite. In the process, they collide with a convention of parapsychics, a sex offender on the loose, and serious personal struggles. Still, the power of sisterhood wins out in the end and the strangers become bosom buddies. Radish's writing is convoluted (“This soft and fast-moving moment is as uncomfortable to her as almost anything hard she has ever done”), and the far-fetched plot is bogged down with hokey twists—dark secrets, undercover agents, and mystical powers. Only Radish's die-hard fans might manage to engage. (June)