A charming, steamy, and intersectional, if a bit uneven, Victorian yarn.
A new plot of espionage and corruption plagues the Roxburys in Sterling’s sequel.
Anne Roxbury, the biracial American widow of the Duke of Westmoure, has settled into her life in the English aristocracy. Her son, named Sterling but called “Sar,” is the family’s heir, entrusted with the lucrative Westmoure Shipping Company, and she has close connections to the King of England, who is also biracial. She’s even found love again with the Duke of Hampton, Thomas Berkley, the King’s cousin. But other vying members of the upper class, including Viscountess Sylvia Meacham and a woman known as “Boss,” have eyes on the company. Unbeknownst to the Roxburys, a plot has emerged to traffic opium and women across Europe and the Middle East, frame the Westmoures, and steal the organization. Multiple attempts are made on Anne and her family’s lives, including a poisoning, and the bodies begin piling up. The local paper’s gossip section, much like Lady Whistledown’s newsletter in the Bridgerton novels, launches a racist smear campaign against the family, blaming their “less than pure blood” for the recent deaths and corruption in the company. In Sterling’s sequel to The American Duke: A Regency-Era Novel (2023), detailed sex scenes punctuate dramatic moments, though they’re made more arresting by Anne’s and Thomas’ middle age and mutual affection. But unlike in the Bridgerton books and others like it, Sterling makes a point to include the reality of racism’s burden on Anne and her family in 19th-century England. Referring to the treatment of Black people, Anne tells Thomas, “They’re accused of stealing, doing things they’ve never done, and then tried and convicted on the spot. Punishment could be anything from chopping off a hand to lynching, just to enforce that the white man is superior to the Negro. This is what we live with, this is what we must do to survive.” The plot and pacing lag in the middle, particularly with so many supporting characters milling about. But revelations toward the end about secret marriages and family connections, as well as the identity of one of the takeover plotters, set this series up well for a third installment and the new challenges Anne will have to face within her family and her social class.
A charming, steamy, and intersectional, if a bit uneven, Victorian yarn.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798986393322
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Krystal Kat Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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