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
Haphazard and undemanding.
A sports agent’s first official client is the man she dumped years ago in college.
After two years of hard work as an underling, Nora Mackenzie is finally being promoted to full-time sports agent. She’s worked hard, kept quiet, and allowed men in the office to call her Mac—a nickname she hates—all to show she’s a team player and “one of the guys.” Unfortunately, her boss instructs her to sign Derek Pender, a football player coming off an injury, who happens to be the man she heartlessly dumped in their senior year of college. Derek signs with her for revenge, seeing it as his opportunity to pay Nora back for callously breaking his heart eight years earlier. He insists she be at his beck and call: answering his emails, running his errands, cooking dinner for his dates. He also refuses to let her explain why she broke up with him without warning or explanation. Nora feels she has no choice but to acquiesce to Derek’s humiliating demands, since she’s worked too hard to let him ruin her dream job. She hopes he’ll thaw and they might become friends, but Derek’s bad behavior is designed to hide the fact that he’s still in love with her. Nora’s characterization is uneven, veering between anger at how she’s treated in the male-dominated field to immature bickering and bantering with Derek. Although Adams likely meant for Derek and Nora’s interactions to have an enemies-to-lovers vibe, the characters instead seem juvenile and stuck in the past. The novel is fueled by a string of tropes—second chance romance! married in Vegas! only one bed!—each randomly deployed to keep the book going despite thin characterization and wan plotting.
Haphazard and undemanding.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723678
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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