A thoroughly satisfying Regency from one of our finest historical romance authors.
A vindication of the rights of shrews.
Lord deGriffith has finally had enough of his bluestocking daughter, Cassandra. After she openly challenges her father's fellow Member of Parliament about a bill she thinks will hurt the poor, he sets a new rule—her beloved sister, Hyacinth, may not marry, or even participate in her first season, until Cassandra herself marries. Frustrated, Cassandra leaves London, where she crosses paths with the notorious Lucius Beckingham, Duke of Ashmont, after her carriage crashes. She was infatuated with Lucius as a young girl but has since lost all patience with his disreputable behavior. As he tries to help Cassandra and her groom, who is badly hurt in the crash, Cassandra finds herself in a difficult position, without an appropriate chaperone, and Lucius—whose fiancee has just run off with one of his friends—offers to marry her. Though years ago this would have pleased Cassandra, and she’s still attracted to him, she no longer trusts the man he’s become—“beautiful, godlike, and hopeless.” Only later, after they are caught in a compromising position, will she agree to a sham engagement to salvage her reputation. Ashmont jumps at the chance to be closer to Cassandra, hoping that before it’s time to break it off, he’ll win her back—and with each day, he comes closer to his goal, with a little help from Mary Wollstonecraft. This book, second in Chase’s Difficult Dukes series, is a typically complex and engaging story from the author, rich with subplots and moments of intrigue. With a hero set on winning his heroine from the start, the suspense is derived primarily from just how far Ashmont will have to go to win back his Cassandra, and readers who like a groveling duke will enjoy his pursuit. Though it’s second in a series, new readers can jump right in, though fans of the first, A Duke in Shining Armor (2017), as well as those familiar with The Taming of the Shrew or Ten Things I Hate About You, will enjoy several subtle touches throughout the book.
A thoroughly satisfying Regency from one of our finest historical romance authors.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-245740-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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