A haunting and atmospheric work that’s likely to captivate genre fans.
Northwick offers a gothic romance about a young woman with a tragic past who discovers more tragedy while working as a researcher at a decades-old estate.
The story picks up with Millie Foxboro’s journey to a place called Willowfield; the estate is located 120 miles outside Boston, where she works in a bookstore. She’s been hired as a research assistant by brooding professor Callum Hughes, a noted scholar of Celtic lore and the wealthy owner of a large perfumery business. Millie learns of the professor’s own difficult past and the ghosts that continue to haunt him and the once-grand Willowfield. As the story goes, when the professor brought his new wife to the sprawling estate, the pressure of the house became overwhelming; as a result, she spiraled into an obsession with evil spirits of Celtic folklore and the unusual flora that adorn the mansion. She eventually threw herself into a nearby ravine and drowned in the river at the bottom, plunging Callum into profound grief. When Millie arrives, the estate has fallen into disrepair and is haunted by many things, including memories that oddly parallel events in her own difficult past. Northwick presents a dark love story that sparkles with elements of gothic horror and more modern romance as Millie explores the dark secrets hidden in Willowfield’s shadows and reveals a few of her own, showing the devastating effects of trauma. Rich and lush natural scenery winds its way around this work like a pervasive vine: “There were pergolas, cherry blossom tunnels, and innumerable bramble arches and clusters of broom waiting patiently to flower. A majestic weeping willow sighed low over a murky pond where a stone kelpie reared half out of the water, searching for a rider.” The prose often reflects the conflict between staid society and the wildness within each of the characters. While some readers may struggle with the slow-burn romance and often quiet tone, many will find this work to be thrilling.
A haunting and atmospheric work that’s likely to captivate genre fans.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9798988473824
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Northwick Books LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
PERSPECTIVES
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