An involving time-travel romance in the hard days of medieval Wales.
A romance novel in which a 20th-century woman finds love and peril 1,000 years in the past.
As Hailbronner’s novel (the first in her Shadows of Black Mountain series) opens, it’s 1960, and Mairwen Tanner is traveling from the south of England to her father’s cottage in Llawgwalch, Carmarthenshire, in back-of-beyond Wales. She’s making the trip after clearing out the house of her recently deceased mother, and she’s traveling alone. Her husband, Jack, has given an excuse for not joining her—an excuse she doesn’t believe (“He was involved with someone again,” she thinks, “another of the many affairs he had had over the years”). She’s visiting Wales to explore her family roots there for the first time in her life, and on the train ride into the Welsh countryside, the first strange thing occurs. She faints, and when she regains her senses, a big, charismatic man is helping her up. She doesn’t recognize him, and she’s struck by the fact that he calls her “fy cariad,” Welsh for “my love.” The stranger disappears, but Mairwen has other mysteries to contend with. Her father has disappeared, but he’s left behind a touching letter and the key to his cottage. Once she’s living in Llawgwalch, Mairwen begins to dream about the mysterious stranger, and the dreams are very informative: He’s Rhain ap Cunadda, a warrior sworn to the service of 11th-century Welsh warlord Rhys ap Tewdwr, and his life story keeps unfolding in Mairwen’s dreams. When those dreams suddenly become reality on Halloween, she finds herself face-to-face with the very flesh-and-blood Rhain in his dangerous world.
Fans of Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series will find themselves in familiar territory almost immediately upon encountering Hailbronner’s opening premise: A modern-day woman in an unhappy marriage time travels to the earlier era of her one true love. Making Mairwen a longtime amateur student of Welsh history gives Hailbronner ample chance to work in the substantial amounts of exposition that this novel requires, some of which is also effectively managed by shifting the scene of action to the ancient past even before Mairwen travels there herself. Readers learn that the Irish King has laid claim to the Kingdom of Gwynedd in ancient Wales, and Rhys ap Tewdwr and his mercenary army, including the steadfast Rhain, are determined to fight. It’s hardly a world for a civilian from the 20th century, much less for burgeoning romance, but by throwing her main characters into shared danger before they even know each other, Hailbronner neatly encourages the reader to become invested. There’s a good deal of (breathless but evocative) atmosphere-setting prose: “Senses heightened, she had become aware of so much more; the faint smell of her own sweat, damp earth disturbed by their feet. So still, then the soft hoot of the owl again, but farther off.” As is customary in novels of this kind, Mairwen adapts almost instantly to life in the brutal past, which makes the events of the novel’s final act all the more wrenching—readers will be eager to follow this story to its next installment.
An involving time-travel romance in the hard days of medieval Wales.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 979-8676350178
Page Count: 506
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
If you like your romance the darker the better, this one is for you.
A young mother returns to the gothic manor of her childhood to dust off the family secrets and face her old flame.
Maven Blackthorn hasn’t been home since her mom died under suspicious circumstances 12 years ago, but the death of her grandmother, Lorinda, forces her return to Solstice, Vermont. Maven’s daughter, Beatrix, has never seen where her mother grew up, but she quickly learns the Blackthorns have a reputation for witchcraft, largely fueled by a centuries-long feud with the powerful Croft family, whose heir apparent, Ronan, was Maven’s forbidden teenage love and “worst nightmare.” Maven hopes to bid farewell to her grandmother and visit with her aunts without running into Ronan, but he proves hard to avoid. Maven’s hatred for Ronan runs deep and she believes the feeling is mutual. From Ronan’s perspective, it’s clear their painful unraveling was full of misunderstandings. When Lorinda’s body goes missing from the funeral home, Maven is forced to accept Ronan’s help in discovering what happened. While Maven dives into her family history and the many unfortunate events befalling Blackthorn women, Ronan is forever in her ear, seducing her back to him. The push and pull of their romance feels immature, which isn’t helped by the first-person present narration. At times, it’s easy to forget Maven and Ronan aren’t still teenagers, until the erotica is punched up a thousand percent in the final third. Controlling lines from Ronan like “Don’t test my patience, woman” might read better if his perspective were explored more, though fans of Geissinger’s dark erotica, including Brutal Vows (2025), may not be fazed. Maven’s perspective dominates, and though her investigation into family lore and increasing paranoia are the most compelling arc, the million and one ways in which she threatens Ronan with physical violence—“What I really want to do is tie you to a tree, disembowel you with my bare hands, feed your guts to the wolves, and cut off your head”—is a bit one-note. Trigger warnings abound.
If you like your romance the darker the better, this one is for you.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250379139
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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