A satisfying sequel in a great historical romance series.
Two spies find each other while skulking around the same dark corners.
Isabel has gotten used to being the invisible Luna sister. In 1865, all three women are stuck in England, trying to influence the ton into supporting their beloved Mexico in its fight against the French invasion, and Isabel has secretly promised to sneak away at balls and look for any information that could help her family and country. After years of being ignored in favor of her stunning sisters, she’s happy to go unseen in order to help her country, but unfortunately, one man sees her all too well: Captain Sirius Dawson, whom she knows as a handsome rogue. They first meet when he’s trying to have an assignation in the same office she’s scoping out, and when she unexpectedly finds herself staying at his country house, he discovers that she has “fascinating depths to her.” After finding her hiding in yet another dark room, he realizes that she snoops as much as he does as part of his secret work for the Home Office. For their own reasons, they’re each haunted by feelings of inadequacy and are thus well practiced at sneaking around in the shadows of the aristocracy—and surprised to meet another person who sees them for who they really are. As a result, their mutual attraction doesn’t surprise anyone, even as both try to stay focused on their respective missions and what seem destined to be separate futures. De la Rosa’s sequel to Ana María and the Fox (2023) will delight fans of that book; Isabel is temperamentally quite different from Ana María but just as compelling. The well-written story has a rich combination of suspense and complex character development, not to mention a red-hot scene when the two are trapped underneath a desk together, but what will stick with readers is the dramatic and moving ending. An excellent author’s note adds welcome context to a book that brings to life an underreported story of the Victorian era so well.
A satisfying sequel in a great historical romance series.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780593440902
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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