A comedic romance with maximum vibes and minimum realism.
Two spies go on a chaotic quest in the third novel of this zany Victorian series.
Daniel Bixby and Alice Dearlove are in service. The secret service. But also working undercover as servants to the gentry while spying on various factions of pirates and witches and other dangers to the realm for A.U.N.T—the Agency of Undercover Note Takers. Having met in passing on an earlier mission, the two are now introduced to each other as the most skilled agents in their organization. Their mission: Pose as a married couple to foil an attempt on Queen Victoria’s life. Trained to put duty above all else thanks to a punishing regimen enforced on them by A.U.N.T. as orphaned children, Alice and Bixby (Agents A and B) are astonished that their attraction makes them want to break that rule. As their task to find and neutralize the assassination weapon takes them on a perilous flying journey to a house party of gleefully quarrelsome sky pirates, forced proximity makes them succumb to their feelings. Consummation follows but only after they agree on a stringent contract about consensual pleasure. The third installment of Holton’s series, following The League of Gentlewomen Witches (2022), ratchets the farcical energy even higher than before. The author's delight in witticisms also fills out a frothy plot. While the couple overcomes a lifetime of stoicism, their feelings are personified into comic extended images and similes reminiscent of a mock epic like Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock.” Apart from A.U.N.T.’s allusion to the “Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” the combat episodes call to mind Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while the farcical values of the world evoke Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If A and B are to overcome the obstacles standing in their way in this free-for-all, they must rely on old friends–cum-employers-cum-enemies to help find their happy-ever-after.
A comedic romance with maximum vibes and minimum realism.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780593547267
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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