Monahan sets this paranormal romance in a Scottish castle during the present day and the 16th century.
From the opening chapter, it’s clear that Samantha McKinley is both impulsive and foolish. When a mysterious letter arrives at her home in Boston informing her that she has inherited an ancient castle along with a large sum of money, and instructs her to come to Scotland and to bring no one along with her, she never questions it. Instead, Samantha obediently heads to Scotland, unaware that she will never return home and never see her friends or family again. A few hours after she arrives in Scotland, Samantha meets Kieron and almost immediately puts all her trust in the good-looking stranger, moving into his house the following day. Mainly through Kieron, Samantha learns of the mysterious history of Rosestone, the castle she has inherited, and later Kieron’s own story. Kieron is an immortal from another dimension, a Keeper who is an angel of light. Samantha learns that an ancient curse threatens her safety. With Kieron’s help she travels back in time to the 16th century to destroy an evil sorcerer and lift the curse. Monahan’s somewhat confusing fantasy mythos features Vikings, demons, angels, alternate worlds, reincarnation and time travel. The characters tend to be simple and flat; the bad guys are unquestionably evil while the good guys are, literally, angels. The story drags during scenes where large chunks of background information are unveiled, usually in the form of stilted dialogue. The pace picks up, however, during those scenes when the forces of good and evil clash, treating readers to some fast-moving action. Readers will have to look beyond a host of spelling and grammatical errors as well as a few continuity lapses, but those who do will find a romantic tale inspired by Celtic legend. An epilogue hints at the possibility of a sequel. This love story of a woman in the right place at the wrong time and the attractive angel-knight who comes to her aid should appeal to readers of the romance genre.
Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463474331
Page Count: 333
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.
In Roberts’ new series launch, the conversion of a tumbledown Maryland hotel into a boutique country inn fails to expel an extremely shy resident ghost.
The first half of the novel, essentially an extended prologue, is painstakingly slow. As Roberts demonstrates a newfound passion for construction minutia (perhaps because she renovated and owns Inn Boonsboro in real life), the activities of architect Beckett Montgomery and his two builder brothers as they retrofit a historic building in Boonsboro (near the Antietam battlefield) unfold almost in real time. Working under the supervision of their benevolent tyrant of a mother, the brothers exchange good-natured macho gibes as they appoint the Inn-to-be with the most opulent tile, woodwork and fixtures. Amid all the bromance, Beckett watches longingly as his crush since grade school, Clare, goes about running her amazingly profitable independent bookstore while raising three unruly boys alone. (Her soldier husband died in Iraq.) Does she or doesn’t she notice him, Beckett muses ad infinitum. Meanwhile, Clare tells herself that Beckett is not really interested, just being kind to a war widow. Once this minor miscommunication is cleared up, the two begin a tentative relationship, however, the necessity of introducing obstacles to true love has Roberts stretching for things for them to squabble about, including the sighting by Clare’s youngest son of a ghostly lady dressed in an old-timey long gown, staring from an upper story window of the Inn. (The ghost, nicknamed “Lizzy,” has betrayed her presence to Beckett and a few others only with a scent of honeysuckle and a penchant for opening doors.) Cartoonish villain Sam, the spoiled, indolent son of the area’s wealthiest family, stalks Clare and tries to take indecent liberties, but his belated appearance, and his failure to pose a believable threat, do little to propel the plot. The fictional doppelganger of Boonsboro is an anachronistic bubble, seemingly untouched by the blight besetting so many American small towns.
An effective infomercial—and guest-room sleep-aid—for Inn BoonsBoro.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24321-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a...
An unhappily married couple spends a year apart in Reid’s (Forever, Interrupted, 2013) novel about second chances.
When we meet Lauren, she and her husband, Ryan, are having a meltdown trying to find their car in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium after a game. Through a series of flashbacks, Lauren reveals how the two of them went from being inseparable to being insufferable in each other’s eyes—and in desperate need of a break. Both their courtship and their fights seem so ordinary—they met in college; he doesn’t like Greek food—that the most heartbreaking part of their pending separation is deciding who will get custody of their good-natured dog. It’s not until Ryan moves out that the juicy details emerge. Lauren surreptitiously logs into his email one day, in a fit of missing him, and discovers a bunch of emails to her that he had saved but not sent. Liberated by Ryan’s candor, Lauren saves her replies for him to find, and the two of them read each other’s unfiltered thoughts as they go about their separate lives. Neither character holds anything back, which makes the healing process more complex, and more compelling, than simply getting revenge or getting one’s groove back. Meanwhile, as Lauren spends more time with her family and friends, she explores the example set for her by her parents and learns that there are many ways to be happy. It’s never clear until the final pages whether living alone will bring Lauren and Ryan back together or force them apart forever. But when the year is up, the resolution is neither sappy nor cynical; it’s arrived at after an honest assessment of what each partner can’t live with and can’t live without.
Reid’s tome on married life is as uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read for anyone who is in (or hopes to be in) a committed relationship.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1284-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Washington Square/Pocket
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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