A Regency romantic drama seething with emotional quakes in the vein of Lisa Kleypas.
A smuggler-turned-privateer and a lady on the run are forced to seek shelter together in a stormy London.
The latest guests in the Grand Palace on the Thames boardinghouse have never known the safety of a loving home. When Lorcan St. Leger crosses paths with Lady Daphne Worth, he’s just brought his ship into port ahead of a storm that's shutting down the city. Lady Daphne is escaping out the window of a house where she fears assault from her new employer’s lecherous husband. Unwilling to abandon her to the dangers of the docklands, the hardened sailor escorts her to what he first assumes is a bordello but discovers is a cozy hotel filled with unusual occupants. Learning that there is only one available space—a two-bedroom suite—they claim to be married so they may wait out the tumultuous weather. Thus begins a lovely new episode in the Palace of Rogues series, in which the author works romance alchemy on the familiar tropes of forced proximity, opposites attract, and a fake relationship, with magical results. Along with the pleasures of peeking in on series regulars, readers will witness the slow build of sexual and emotional ties between a former orphan from the slums and a woman once destined to marry a fellow aristocrat. As they spend time alone in their suite to build a convincing story about their nonexistent couplehood, Lorcan and Daphne realize they’re revealing hidden facets of themselves that no one else has known or could have been trusted with. Long imbues their every gesture and utterance with delicate weight. Metaphor and similes abound, making visible the ineffable threads that weave two people into one self when they share past griefs, present desires, and future wishes. The emotional punch is lightened from time to time by the other guests’ quirks, culminating in the classic arc of a harmonious society. The couple’s dark moment of choosing between prescribed paths and taking a risk is inevitable but the narrative moves past it speedily. The epilogue might split readers, but most will enjoy its promise of more stories to come.
A Regency romantic drama seething with emotional quakes in the vein of Lisa Kleypas.Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780063280915
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An inexplicable, aimless, and troubling reading experience.
The most feared criminal in Italy blackmails a woman into working for him.
Elio Marino is known throughout Turin’s criminal underworld as “The Wicked” because if he judges someone to be a sinner, he will kill them and everyone in their bloodline as punishment. Zahra Faizan is the head of a small, scrappy crew of thieves that call themselves Street. They target and raid one of Elio’s vault houses, escaping with enough money to last for years. A furious Elio tracks them down. He shoots and tortures Zahra until she makes a desperate bargain: In exchange for their lives, Zahra and the four other members of Street will work as permanent indentured servants for Elio. From this beginning, the book spins off a series of scenes that are so loosely interconnected that it reads less like a novel than a series of vignettes with characters who happen to have the same names: Now Zahra and Elio are playing chess; now Elio is drowning Zahra in a pool; now Elio and Zahra are in a shootout and have to save each other; now Elio and Zahra are getting high and making out. Although it’s billed as a romance, Zahra is in a casual relationship with Devil, another member of Street and Elio’s long-lost brother, for most of the book. Dramatic biographical details and storylines are introduced for both Elio and Zahra to justify their feelings or behavior, but this characterization is inconsistent and fractured. Once the scene is over, that information about the character might disappear for hundreds of pages, or never appear again. There is no chemistry or spark between Elio and Zahra, just strange, wooden dialogue and a cliffhanger ending.
An inexplicable, aimless, and troubling reading experience.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781250385857
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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