A joyful celebration of one of the most important writers in English literature.
Eight stories give new life to some of Jane Austen’s overshadowed characters.
In recognition of Austen’s 250th birthday, nine authors have compiled eight stories reimagining some of the secondary and tertiary characters from her beloved tales, placing them against both historical and contemporary backgrounds. Often having only a handful of Austen’s sentences as a jumping-off point, the authors take minor characters like Eliza Brandon, Margaret Dashwood, and Georgiana Darcy, flesh them out, and give them complex, intriguing narratives of their own. Nikki Payne’s reimagining of Pride and Prejudice’s Caroline Bingley as a free woman of color traveling away from her community in New Orleans to marry a complete stranger out West is especially engrossing, as is Eloisa James’ tale of Margaret Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, now a bit older, out in society and training herself to be a novelist as she waits to fall in love. Diana Quincy’s attention is thoughtfully trained on Lydia Wickham (née Bennet), also from Pride and Prejudice, surprised by a second chance at love after she’s widowed by her wicked husband. Though Sarah MacLean and Elinor Lipman choose very different happy endings for Emma’s Hetty Bates, both are highly satisfying. In keeping with the spirit of Austen’s work, there are multiple life-changing kisses in these stories, but anything spicier than that is kept off the page, and even in the contemporary stories there is a sense of old-fashioned courtliness underlying the different voices. The collection’s primary flaw is that the length of the stories varies widely; some are too long while others feel thin by comparison. Despite this, the collection will have tremendous appeal to Austen’s legion of devoted readers, thanks to the unique and generally well-executed concept.
A joyful celebration of one of the most important writers in English literature.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781668204177
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A book that will wolfishly appeal to the most heated fans of omegaverse erotica.
Tess Covington is a talented, successful contractor who just learned that she’s a late-in-life omega wolf shifter. Her new boss, surly innkeeper Hunter Barrett, is an alpha who’s opposed to the remodeling she’s there to do.
Tess hasn’t made it public that she’s being considered for her own HGTV makeover show, but she runs her career like a well-oiled machine. She posts a lot of her remodels on social media, granting her a certain level of celebrity, and leans on her brothers to help run the business she took over after a stroke made it impossible for her father to keep working. Hunter’s last serious relationship with an omega 10 years ago left him deeply wounded, ending when his parents were killed in a car accident and he moved back home to take care of their lodge—hence his resistance to change. With few exceptions, Tess keeps her newly diagnosed omega status to herself. Unfortunately, as an alpha, Hunter sniffs her out and seems to be the only person capable of helping her with her sudden heats, so there’s a lot of very smutty caretaking. The specificity of omegaverse hierarchy might be new to some readers, but Ferguson’s worldbuilding is quick, easy, and deeply horny. General romance readers might enjoy the grumpy-meets-sunshine and stranded-in-a-snowstorm tropes, although for a book about shifters, the characters spend surprisingly little time in wolf form. There’s not much danger of character development or surprising plot elements here, but for fans excited to read about animalistic mating, that might be enough.
A book that will wolfishly appeal to the most heated fans of omegaverse erotica.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593953693
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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