A charming love story set in the English countryside that’s grounded in impeccable research.
A Regency-era romance is complicated by secrets in the second novel in Baxter’s Linfield Ladies Series.
Harriet Linfield retreats to her family home of Linfield Court in the English countryside after her older half brother’s wedding. She hopes to work on her writing, but her peace is quickly disturbed when her other brother, James, brings his good friend and academic collaborator Viscount Wentford to stay with them. Not only is Wentford writing a geology paper with James, but he’s also soon revealed to be Harriet’s neighbor: Both have inherited estates from extended family members, and they share a land boundary. Immediately, Harriet’s guard is up against Wentford as a potential suitor, because—perhaps too quickly—it’s revealed that she was previously preyed upon by a fortune hunter named Mr. Anderson. However, this early exposition leaves plenty of space for the characters to evolve and surprise readers in ways that enable exploration of the story’s wider historical context. The story skillfully mentions real figures from the period, such as Jane Austen, William Wilberforce, and Hannah More, which will satisfy history enthusiasts. Baxter’s detailed research shines through at other points, including during a particularly comical exploration of contemporary attitudes toward women’s education—one which arrives in the form of handsome and opinionated poet Augustus Wynn. The work also intriguingly touches on the abolition of slavery in England. As Harriet grapples with her past and present, she pursues her ambitions and reconciles with the fact that she feels like an outsider in her own family. Overall, Baxter presents a heroine who’s introspective and endearing as she desperately tries to follow the many rules of Regency propriety.
A charming love story set in the English countryside that’s grounded in impeccable research.Pub Date: April 26, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 253
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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