Between Friends

February 22, 2010
Kiernan (Catching Genius
) again demonstrates her ability to portray true-to-life relationships between women. Ali Gutierrez is mother to 15-year-old Letty thanks to the egg donation of her best friend, Cora. Ali wants to have another child, but first has to convince her husband, Benny, and then Cora, to endure the process one more time. Cora, a free-spirit who's just returned to America from a teaching excursion in Chile, has news of her own—she has a debilitating genetic kidney disease, and she's not sure how to break the news to Ali. Meanwhile, Letty's going through growing pains with her bad-news boyfriend, and when poor choices begin endangering her life, it takes all three of her parents—Benny, Ali, and Cora—to try to save her. With realistic dialogue and pinpointed emotions, Kiernan paints a persuasive portrait of the bonds between mothers, daughters, and friends in this inspiring, heartbreaking tale.

March 15, 2010
Kiernans third novel, following Matters of Faith (2008), is another foray into family drama. Ali and Cora have been best friends since childhood. Now in their forties, the two women lead very different lives: single Cora is a professor who studies wind trends, while Ali is a wife and mother. When Ali was unable to get pregnant, Cora donated her own eggs so that Ali could have her miracle child, Letty, now 14 and in full-fledged teenage rebellion. Cora has returned to Florida with a terrible secret: shes suffering from a hereditary kidney disease that she fears shes passed on to Letty. While Cora works up the courage to tell Ali what her family may be facing, Ali is contemplating the possibility of having another child even as her marriage is showing signs of strain, and Letty is sneaking out to see her troubled boyfriend. A late-in-the-game tragic twist might take the drama a bit too far, but all in all this is a satisfying exploration of an enduring, complex friendship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)