Kennedy Girl

Caitlin Hicks

Fiction

An uncontrollable series of events transform the lives of two teenagers the night of RFK’s assassination. The unforgettable heroine of A Theory of Expanded Love returns in this coming-of-age adventure about...

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An uncontrollable series of events transform the lives of two teenagers the night of RFK’s assassination. The unforgettable heroine of A Theory of Expanded Love returns in this coming-of-age adventure about love, justice and the memorable year of 1968.

Seventeen-year-old Annie Shea is feeling good about her life. Performing a solo in a glee club production of HAIR, she has a crush on the show’s star, Lucas Jones, a talented black singer/dancer from Watts. Annie sneaks away from home to volunteer for Robert Kennedy, and proudly rides alongside his car as part of his campaign entourage.

On a hot June night inside the crowded ballroom of The Ambassador Hotel, Annie and Lucas witness the triumph of RFK’s presidential campaign. Seconds later, RFK is shot, and the two follow his ambulance through the streets of LA—a tragic and chaotic ride that upends their young lives forever. 

Soon after, Annie ditches her first day of university to drive Lucas and her brother to Canada to evade the law. Throughout the suspense of their hasty road trip up the coast of California, Annie unearths her brother’s unbearable secrets. She connects with Lucas’s generous heart while sorting out justice and privilege, racism, sexuality, love, and the dark forces of war. 

In the sequel to the award-winning A Theory of Expanded Love, Annie is determined to find her voice. Thrust into making excruciating decisions, Annie begins to understand the new roles she must navigate as a woman in a fast-changing society, amidst the chaos, danger and social change of the late Sixties.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:

“Just as good as A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE. Strong, complex characters, vivid descriptions, tension and dialogue that move the story forward at just the right pace.
Sydney Avey, author of The Trials of Nellie Belle 

“Wonderful – a very engrossing read. Great characters. Excellent plot, lots of action and suspense.” – Nancy Boyarsky, author of The Swap and Liar, Liar!

“A Must Read for anyone who came of age in the Sixties”
Or their children or grandchildren. Brilliantly recapturing the era, Caitlin Hicks takes the reader on a joyous, poignant, thoughtful romp through first love, social awareness, racial tensions, gender and family issues and the authentic search for one’s personal identity and place in life. Highly recommended. – Katherine Hemsworth, Sunshine Coast Book Club

“Terrific book. . . a remarkably original voice.”
“Holds up. And moves the dial forward. Annie is such a fascinating character … and with such a remarkably original voice. So many moments which are exceptionally real, and contain a rock-solid truth. Interesting, (especially now), a time where everything feels like a half truth or an out-and-out lie.
“Even though it’s an historical piece, it also feels very much of the times.”
-Ben Ged Low, Filmmaker

“Hard to put down as it is quickly paced with a number of co- occurring story lines. Based in the year 1968 in America, it was the era in which I was the same age as your protagonist/narrator, but with one significant difference, I’m Canadian.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the book. You capture perfectly the upheaval of the times with the Vietnam war looming large on the nightly TV screens and the race riots, and the assignation of two leading lights, MLK and RFK just months apart.
“Against this setting are the personal challenges of the coming of age of the protagonist, as the realization that the perfect society she was brought up to believe in starts to crack and peel in the light of reality also impacting her black friend Lucas and her brother disillusioned about the young men dying in Vietnam.
“You brought a smile to my face at the narrators thoughts of the promise of Canada, the country she has never thought of before but suddenly looms large as a sanctuary for her brother.
“I would recommend this to anyone from that era or now who wants to get a sense of the tenor of the times.
Great job.
Kathy Pierce, Beta Reader

“Poignant love story . . . powerful and relevant. . . this story will stay with you.”
“Kennedy Girl is a poignant love story between a white girl and a black guy which is not that uncommon today. Yet the racial tension in the US in the late 1960’s makes this coming-of-age novel powerful and relevant.
“The deeper elements of this story will stay with you. I especially liked the book because it captures the timeless awakening to the bigger world, that particular point in our youth when we must define our values and standards for living our lives.“
Jane Catherine Rozek, award-winning author of The Celestial Proposal. 

by Caitlin Hicks
Page Count: 290
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: April 25, 2023
Imprint: Brown Posey Press
Genre: Literary Fiction

FICTION / Coming of Age
FICTION / Historical / 20th Century / General
FICTION / Literary

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A
Anonymous
Finding her place in the world

Reviewed by Alma Boucher for Readers' Favorite

KENNEDY GIRL by Caitlin Hicks is a gripping story about Annie Shea, a young woman who gets mixed up in the social and political unrest of the 1960s. Annie is having a hard time figuring out where she fits in a world that is changing. Annie is drawn to Robert Kennedy because of his charisma and because his message of peace and optimism resonates deeply with her. Annie is shaken by RFK’s assassination, and she and her friend, Lucas, follow RFK’s ambulance through the streets of Los Angeles. This changes the course of Annie's and Lucas’s young lives. To avoid the law, Annie skips her first day of classes at the university and instead drives Lucas and her brother to Canada. On the trip, Annie learns about her brother’s heartbreaking secrets.

KENNEDY GIRL by Caitlin Hicks covers the stormy events of the 1960s and their effects on a generation of young people. I was intrigued, and the events and suspense were just enough to keep me interested. It was an easy read, and I could not put it down. I could relate to the cast of characters since they were both realistic and memorable. Annie is a sympathetic character who is struggling to find her place in the world and I could identify with her struggles and victories. The beautiful writing style brought the story and characters to life and captured the mood of the era. The story shows us that we can be brave and strong in the face of difficulty.

A
Anonymous
A TALE OF TWO NOVELS, #2 KENNEDY GIRL

Other reviewers of Caitlin Hicks’ inspired novels have often burst into superlatives. I feel much the same way.

The two novels follow the transformation of Annie Shea from a gawky twelve year old, desperate to make her mark as # 6 in a Catholic family of thirteen children into an unstoppable seventeen year old as KENNEDY GIRL, the sequel of A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE

KENNEDY GIRL: 1968. What a year to be seventeen. Hair opens on Broadway. Bobby Kennedy is campaigning to run for President on a social reform platform. Annie is cast in a musical revue of songs from Hair, directed by lecherous Father Sullivan and starring Lucas, a charismatic black dancer from a Catholic School in Watts. Annie’s older sister, the rebellious Madcap, is dating a Jew against her parents wishes. Annie’s older brothers are enlisting to fight in Vietnam with the enthusiastic support of their father, a former Commander in the US Navy. What can go wrong when Annie sneaks out of the house to join Madcap and Lucas in working on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign?

KENNEDY GIRL hits all the high points of that idealistic, troubled and iconoclastic year. Feminism, abuse of power, assassination, racism, war, loyalty and duty—these themes effortlessly unfold in the believable and inevitable unfolding of this story.

I simply loved both books. Do yourself a favour, order both books at once and save on shipping.

A
Anonymous
A TALE OF TWO NOVELS, #1 THEORY

A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE by Caitlin Hicks
reviewed by Carole Harmon

Other reviewers of Caitlin Hicks’ inspired novels have often burst into superlatives. I feel much the same way. The two novels follow the transformation of Annie Shea from a gawky twelve year old, desperate to make her mark as # 6 in a Catholic family of thirteen children (fourteen by the novel’s end), into an unstoppable seventeen year old as KENNEDY GIRL the sequel.

A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE is the second edition of this book which was Caitlin Hicks’ debut novel. It won many awards when it was released in 2015. The most auspicious, to my mind, was its inclusion on Book Riot’s 100 Must Read Books About Women & Religion along with many of the world’s most famous novelists: A.S. Byatt, Margaret Atwood, Ann Patchett, Iris Murdoch, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Zora Neil Hurston, Arundhati Roy, Alice Hoffman…..

This charming book is much more than a pretty face. The author is also from a large Catholic family, as is her husband, renowned Canadian visual artist, Gordon Halloran. These two families provided the inspiration and background knowledge for two books which ring with the authenticity of lived experience. Twelve year old Annie Shea aches to be good, to be seen, to do what’s right rather than what’s proper. This book makes me remember my own twelve year old self and all the repressed and urgent passion, idealism and hesitancy of that age.