Vivid, heartfelt and honest.
Dempsey-Legnon’s fictional adaptation of family history is a novel about life in a Cajun village in the early 1900s, as recounted by a woman who worked hard and suffered greatly for her family and for love.
In 1965, Jean Marc Fontenot lays in a hospital bed in Lafayette, La., with his wife, Angelique, at his side as Dempsey-Legnon’s impactful debut novel begins. Their children and grandchildren visit and keep Angelique company, but the steady stream of well-wishers does not change one fact: Jean Marc is dying. Angelique recounts the details of their love story, taking everyone back to Belair Cove in 1906, when she and Jean Marc were teenagers in love. To Angelique’s dismay, her father agrees with the father of the town troublemaker, Damon, that she will marry Damon, not Jean Marc. Since Damon’s family is wealthier, Angelique’s father tries to convince her that she can have a much more comfortable life with Damon. After Angelique reluctantly marries Damon, Jean Marc enlists in the military and leaves town for the war. As Damon’s volatile temper grows out of control, the disturbing details of Angelique’s awful marriage to him convincingly convey his alcoholism and abusive behavior. He’s possessive, controlling and, despite hardly showing any affection toward Angelique, he vows that he will never let her go. Damon is a miserable character; Angelique’s lack of courage to regularly stand up to him can be frustrating. On the other hand, Angelique secretly harbors feelings for Jean Marc, even in his absence. When he finally returns, he brings with him his British wife, a nurse named Elizabeth. An understandably shocked Angelique envies their life together; she still wishes to be with Jean Marc, whose mere presence in town enrages Damon. He warns Angelique against going near Jean Marc, but when Jean Marc and Elizabeth buy a neighboring farm, the lack of distance between both couples stirs up old feelings. In this captivating tale rich with historical detail, Dempsey-Legnon’s engaging writing style makes the reader feel like a part of Belair Cove, rather than an outsider looking in on the fraying romance.
Vivid, heartfelt and honest.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1105058585
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
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
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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