A vigorous potboiler combining over-the-top melodrama with psychological realism.
An adolescent indiscretion leads to broken hearts and sexual enslavement in Wiens' third installment of the Love, Loss, and Honor series.
Bill Schmidt and Carrie Bennett, high school sweethearts living on ranches in Washington state’s Palouse region, break up when rich vamp Willa Roberts casually seduces Bill just before graduation. Crushed, Carrie moves out East for college and, while on a vacation in Greece, has a fling with sexy crime lord Nicolas. When she tries to leave, Nicolas says that he now owns her as a concubine and forces her to continue servicing him and other men whom he loans her out to. The abuse continues until Bill, still carrying a torch, shows up to rescue her from Nicolas’ island lair; impressed by his gallantry, Nicolas lets him and Carrie go. But the pair only grow more estranged, as Carrie has grown attached to Nicolas and wants to bear his child, and Bill now considers Carrie defiled. Back in Washington, Carrie is again forced into sexual servitude when she meets Rod, who beats her, prostitutes her to other men, and forces her to make porn videos. Bill again intervenes, thrashing Rod and whisking Carrie away to her parents’ ranch, where she recovers with the help of a remorseful Willa. Romance rekindles between Bill and Carrie—and then short-circuits when Bill has a flashback to the Nicolas episode (“I…I saw a man pawing you in your slut days,” he stammers, permanently killing the mood). Danger is afoot when Nicolas’ son, Nicolas Jr., arrives incognito, scheming to lure Carrie back into thralldom once again. The novel features a lurid, implausible narrative that includes a subplot about Bill’s cousin being possessed by the soul of Bill’s long-dead father. But it’s also a penetrating exploration of the emotional dynamics of relationships, probing the yearning, hesitancy, and prickliness that arise from lingering wounds. Wiens conveys this in subtle prose that evokes rich feeling from homely details: “Carrie walked over to remove the browned slices from the toaster. Reaching across for more bread, she had to press against him for a moment. Bill’s body was fixed, immobile, yet somehow tender”). The result is a soap opera with real depth.
A vigorous potboiler combining over-the-top melodrama with psychological realism.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798985408386
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
If you like your romance the darker the better, this one is for you.
A young mother returns to the gothic manor of her childhood to dust off the family secrets and face her old flame.
Maven Blackthorn hasn’t been home since her mom died under suspicious circumstances 12 years ago, but the death of her grandmother, Lorinda, forces her return to Solstice, Vermont. Maven’s daughter, Beatrix, has never seen where her mother grew up, but she quickly learns the Blackthorns have a reputation for witchcraft, largely fueled by a centuries-long feud with the powerful Croft family, whose heir apparent, Ronan, was Maven’s forbidden teenage love and “worst nightmare.” Maven hopes to bid farewell to her grandmother and visit with her aunts without running into Ronan, but he proves hard to avoid. Maven’s hatred for Ronan runs deep and she believes the feeling is mutual. From Ronan’s perspective, it’s clear their painful unraveling was full of misunderstandings. When Lorinda’s body goes missing from the funeral home, Maven is forced to accept Ronan’s help in discovering what happened. While Maven dives into her family history and the many unfortunate events befalling Blackthorn women, Ronan is forever in her ear, seducing her back to him. The push and pull of their romance feels immature, which isn’t helped by the first-person present narration. At times, it’s easy to forget Maven and Ronan aren’t still teenagers, until the erotica is punched up a thousand percent in the final third. Controlling lines from Ronan like “Don’t test my patience, woman” might read better if his perspective were explored more, though fans of Geissinger’s dark erotica, including Brutal Vows (2025), may not be fazed. Maven’s perspective dominates, and though her investigation into family lore and increasing paranoia are the most compelling arc, the million and one ways in which she threatens Ronan with physical violence—“What I really want to do is tie you to a tree, disembowel you with my bare hands, feed your guts to the wolves, and cut off your head”—is a bit one-note. Trigger warnings abound.
If you like your romance the darker the better, this one is for you.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250379139
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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