Forbidden desires add to Jamaica’s steamy climate in this compelling historical romance.
Colonial Jamaica brims with longing, heat, and mystery in Graham’s historical novel.
Jamaica in the 1790s is not the island paradise that we know today. Heat, humidity, a constant drone of insects, daily storms, seasonal hurricanes, and natural disasters like earthquakes combine with the colonial problems of slavery, racism, smuggling, and political upheaval to create an ominous backdrop for an engrossing historical romance. Rhiannon Wynne Ross, an outspoken young woman “accustomed to having her opinion respected and her conversation requested,” has come to Jamaica from England to confront her husband, Albert Ross, the owner of the Fain Hill plantation. “An aging widower, he’d married Rhiannon not for companionship but for the chance of an heir—a legitimate heir,” but shortly after their wedding, he abruptly left England to return to Jamaica. While waiting for his return, Rhiannon visits her dear friend, Elisabeth Graham, in Philadelphia, where the dashing Scotsman Liam Brock helps her bid on a boardinghouse she hopes to run. The “grudging friendship” between Liam and Rhiannon grows into a mutual attraction before she leaves for Jamaica to confront her husband about financial matters. Meanwhile, Liam takes on the responsibility of escorting a young woman to Jamaica to reunite with her father, thinking that Rhiannon is on her way back to Philadelphia. However, Rhiannon has stayed in Jamaica, where she learns that her husband’s plantation is almost bankrupt. Circumstances conspire to throw Liam and Rhiannon together repeatedly, and their attraction smolders, rendered sultrily in Graham’s heated prose (“He turned his head to kiss the inside of her wrist, taking care not to scrape it over stubble, and her racing pulse shuddered past the tip of his tongue. He stifled a groan”). Background information about the protagonists is seamlessly woven throughout a well-plotted narrative; this book can be read as a stand-alone, though it is the third in a series. Written with sensitivity and remarkable insight into the lives of women, the enslaved, and other populations relegated to the margins of colonial history, this is an absorbing yarn.
Forbidden desires add to Jamaica’s steamy climate in this compelling historical romance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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