Invitation to a Bonfire
By Adrienne Celt
256 pages
To Zoya Andropova, an orphan from rural Russia, suburban New
Jersey appears covered in "sugar glaze," with "sweet and
personal" houses marked by holly bushes and white picket fences. Yet the
ingenue of this sultry novel feels like "a girl hollow with the knowledge
that she still had no home." Enter Leo Orlov, Celt's spin on Vladimir
Nabokov, who becomes the light of Zoya's life and the fire in her loins.
— Michelle Hart
