Romance with a side of poignant family dynamics and a large, intriguing cast.
A second-chance romance inaugurates a new Regency series about a family torn apart by lies and healed by love.
Devlin Ware, Viscount Mountford, is the favored heir of a beloved aristocratic family. At his family's annual ball, he has just been granted the love of Gwyneth Rhys, the neighbor he has longed for all his life, and is preparing to approach her father for her hand when he discovers his father in a compromising position with a woman who must be his mistress. In indignation, Devlin tells his father to send the woman away, loud enough for many of their guests to hear—a performance that gets him banished from Ravenswood Hall, his idyllic home. The first part of the novel shows a perfect world that collapses, a bit implausibly, into heartbreak and separation; the second charts the exile’s return from active duty in the Napoleonic wars after his father's death and the unexpected way Gwyneth reknits their bond while Devlin learns that righteous morality, duty, love, and forgiveness need not be mutually exclusive. Some readers may view the primary romance as being consigned to a subplot while a lot of space is spent on a meticulous word-picture of the family seat and portraits of the many secondary characters who will take the lead in later books. But readers who appreciate Balogh’s skill at linking her characters’ inner lives, surroundings, and social ties will find many pleasures here. Themes from previous series reappear: Those who rooted for the head of the Bedwyn family will see echoes in the older Devlin’s frostiness, with the added bonus of the character’s point of view; fans of the Survivors’ Club series may sympathize with his experiences in the army; readers who liked the Huxtable family’s resilience in the aftermath of its patriarch’s bigamy will enjoy this twist on a similar problem; and those who remember the author’s Welsh romances will welcome Gwyneth and her family for returning us to Balogh’s roots. There is one off note: In an apparent bid to criticize fat-phobia, one character’s body is repeatedly mentioned in fat-phobic terms.
Romance with a side of poignant family dynamics and a large, intriguing cast.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-43812-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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