The background may leave readers wanting, but the love story will keep romance fans enthralled.
A thief and an Archduke find themselves first at odds, then as allies in the fight against the crown’s enemies in Shaffery’s fantasy/romance.
Adelaide is on her way to Castle Belmont with forged letters of reference and a task: She aims to steal the Eye of Behelwer, a powerful magical object (“[a]n artifact that could amplify the magic of its user”), from Archduke Gavin Hughes. When her mother first got sick, Adelaide was able to make some extra money as a pickpocket—until she tried to steal from the Master of Thieves herself. Now, as long as Adelaide steals whatever the Master of Thieves (more commonly known as Mistress Scrabs) wants, Adelaide’s mother is able to continue to receive the expensive treatment that she needs. But there’s something appealing about working undercover as a maid in Castle Belmont while she’s searching for the Eye; the other servants are nice to her, Gavin the Archduke is always kind, and the castle is close enough to her family to enable her to visit. Adelaide starts to think she might be able to just stay on at this job and not steal the artifact from the Archduke’s collection. But it transpires that Gavin didn’t actually need a new maid—he was laying a trap for a woman suspected of stealing from various noble households. Can he and Adelaide stop her from using all of the artifacts she’s stolen to threaten the crown? In this fantasy romance, the author pens a thrilling tale of enemies-to-unsure-allies-to-lovers. While Adelaide and Gavin both feel a connection in the beginning, the awkward “Can I trust them?” phase is well paced, with nothing rushed—their feelings seem genuine. The story’s main flaw is some lackluster worldbuilding—a previous war, the deaths of many in the royal family, and even the way the magic system works aren’t given as much of an explanation as one might like.
The background may leave readers wanting, but the love story will keep romance fans enthralled.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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