An enchanting, vibrant story that captures romance, fantasy and adventure with intriguing detail and an epic, fairy-tale...
Aisling and Rùnach’s adventure continues, as Rùnach steps more fully into his royal heritage, leading them back to his grandfather’s elven kingdom, where they will seek answers as to who Aisling truly is and how they might save the Nine Kingdoms.
After Aisling is sent on a quest she never asked for and meets up with Rùnach, an elven prince and mage who has lost his magic, the two travel to an array of magical places Aisling never imagined existed. But her travels with Rùnach have taught the weaver a few things, the most important one being that he is a man she can depend on. When it becomes clear that there are people who want them both dead, they seek sanctuary in Seanagarra, the magical elven realm of Rùnach’s grandfather. There, Rùnach tries to decipher an enigmatic spell book he found on his journey that might have some answers they both need in order to succeed in saving her country but which has also brought about the wrath of a black mage, who will kill to recover the book and its secrets. Meanwhile, under the mystical influence of Seanagarra and Rùnach’s grandparents, Aisling seems to become more powerful and magical in ways none of them have ever seen, even though the elder generation has some idea of who she really is and what is in her future. Aisling and Rùnach have been slowly and quietly falling in love, but the time has come to commit to one another and to Aisling’s quest and in doing so, learn of the network of people who have been watching and waiting for the day they take up the challenge in earnest. Taking up where Dreamspinner (2012) left off, Kurland continues her romantic fantasy series with the same elegant writing—though a few oft-repeated phrases do get distracting—and imagination, taking the reader on an adventure chock full of magical beings, breathtaking descriptions, and beautifully rendered characters and situations.
An enchanting, vibrant story that captures romance, fantasy and adventure with intriguing detail and an epic, fairy-tale sensibility.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-425-26282-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hannah, after eight paperbacks, abandons her successful time-travelers for a hardcover life of kitchen-sink romance. Everyone must have got the Olympic Peninsula memo for this spring because, as of this reading, authors Hannah, Nora Roberts, and JoAnn Ross have all placed their newest romances in or near the Quinault rain forest. Here, 40ish Annie Colwater, returns to Washington State after her husband, high-powered Los Angeles lawyer Blake, tells her he’s found another (younger) woman and wants a divorce. Although a Stanford graduate, Annie has known only a life of perfect wifedom: matching Blake’s ties to his suits and cooking meals from Gourmet magazine. What is she to do with her shattered life? Well, she returns to dad’s house in the small town of Mystic, cuts off all her hair (for a different look), and goes to work as a nanny for lawman Nick Delacroix, whose wife has committed suicide, whose young daughter Izzy refuses to speak, and who himself has descended into despair and alcoholism. Annie spruces up Nick’s home on Mystic Lake and sends “Izzy-bear” back into speech mode. And, after Nick begins attending AA meetings, she and he become lovers. Still, when Annie learns that she’s pregnant not with Nick’s but with Blake’s child, she heads back to her empty life in the Malibu Colony. The baby arrives prematurely, and mean-spirited Blake doesn’t even stick around to support his wife. At this point, it’s perfectly clear to Annie—and the reader—that she’s justified in taking her newborn daughter and driving back north. Hannah’s characters indulge in so many stages of the weeps, from glassy eyes to flat-out sobs, that tear ducts are almost bound to stay dry. (First printing of 100,000; first serial to Good Housekeeping; Literary Guild/Doubleday book club selections)
Pub Date: March 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-609-60249-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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