The Shark Club

April 24, 2017
How is it possible that a shark-whispering marine scientist who was “literally bitten by the object of her obsession” isn’t the most interesting person in her own story? Daniel Wakefield gave Maeve Donnelly her first kiss on the very day he saved her from that shark attack. He also broke her heart a decade later when, before they wed, he impregnated a now-deceased woman who gave birth to Hazel, the six-year-old budding paleontologist and the book’s best-written character. As Maeve, in between assignments, hits 30, she returns to her grandmother’s hotel in Florida, convinced she has finally gotten over Daniel and fallen in love with a fellow marine biologist who is separated from his wife. But then Hazel creates the Shark Club for her and invites Daniel—now the hotel’s chef—to join. Will Maeve learn how to be “a little less Cathy and Heathcliff,” or realize Hazel is the tie that binds? A subplot involving the book that Maeve’s twin brother, Robin, has written about her doomed love story cannot compete with that level of romantic indecisiveness. With her wishy-washy lead, Taylor’s novel just narrowly misses the mark.

April 1, 2017
An adventurous researcher returns to her childhood home and must navigate relationships with her brother, her ex-fiance, and a potential new lover.Maeve Donnelly has been interested in sharks ever since she was bitten by one as a 12-year-old and survived. Now an adult, Maeve is a marine biologist and more comfortable with sharks than she is with people. At the end of a research trip, Maeve is drawn to Nicholas, a fellow researcher, and invites him to meet her in Mozambique for her next expedition. Yet when she returns to her childhood home at her aunt's hotel in Florida, where she and her brother moved after their parents died in a private plane accident, she finds unresolved family and romantic relationships waiting for her. Maeve learns that her less successful twin brother, Robin, has had a novel accepted for publication, and it's loosely based on a broken engagement in Maeve's past. Further, Maeve's ex-fiance, Daniel, is now the hotel's chef. Before Maeve can decide whether to move forward with Nicholas, she must address her lingering connection to Daniel, which is no easy task given that the two haven't spoken since Daniel confessed an affair to her. To complicate matters, Daniel's precocious 6-year-old daughter, Hazel (who was born of his affair), now lives with him after the untimely death of her mother. Hazel is taken with sea creatures and invites Maeve to be a member of The Shark Club with her. Maeve's professional life is also challenged as an illegal finning operation has moved into the area and is targeting local sharks. Taylor's debut novel paints a fascinating portrait of sharks and a woman who loves them, with the sweet, burgeoning relationship between Maeve and Hazel as its anchor. The romantic relationships never feel quite fully realized, however, as Nicholas' presence is too fleeting to endear the reader to him, which makes Maeve's dilemma of whether to be with him or Daniel seem more symbolic than anything. Considering that the novel is told in the first person, at times Maeve's thoughts and motivations are also surprisingly hidden both from herself and the reader. There is an interesting cast of secondary characters, such as Maeve's aunt and brother, and the scenes depicting Maeve's intellectual and emotional ties to sharks are captivating, especially as the illegal finning operation becomes an urgent local issue that forces her into activism. An engaging novel about the loves that define our lives.

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May 1, 2017

DEBUT At age 12, Maeve Donnelly experienced her first kiss, her first "I love you," and a gruesome shark bite. Now 30, marine biologist Maeve travels the world studying sharks. In between expeditions, she visits home. Though she only has a slight physical scar from the shark attack, Maeve has plenty of psychological scars in her past, including betrayal by Daniel, her first love, and her friend Robin, who wrote a novel that's the exact story of Maeve's broken love life. Staying in her grandmother's book-themed hotel, where Daniel is the chef, Maeve feels drawn to him and his charming daughter. Meanwhile, a large, grisly shark-finning operation is operating right under her nose. Maeve must come to terms with Robin's deception, as well as reconcile her feelings for Daniel. Memoirist Taylor (Traveling with Pomegranates) makes a relatively successful first fiction outing. Though the mystery of the finning operation is too neatly and quickly resolved, and secondary characters, while developed, lack substance, the author has written a very readable and pleasant novel. VERDICT Maeve's passion for sharks is eloquent and contagious. A beach read with depth, but maybe not for reading on the actual beach.--Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017

Taylor, who coauthored the New York Times best-selling memoir Traveling with Pomegranates, now offers her first novel. Attacked by a Black Tip shark when she was 12 (on the same memorable day of her first kiss), Maeve Donnelly is now a famed marine biologist. But she's not so adept socially, which her rotten brother is about to reveal in a novel based on her stumbling love life.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.