Uneven but ultimately successful feminist historical romance.
Two Regency-era secret agents open up to another person for the first time.
Josephine Brown has secrets. She wears a mask to perform as Blade, the incognito woman at the center of the daring knife-throwing act in Farnham’s Fantastical Female Fayre. And she’s spent most of her life in hiding, assisting her father with his cloak-and-dagger missions for the Crown and never staying in one place for long. She’s grown used to solitude, but since making real friends at the circus after her father’s death, she’s begun to wonder if she should stay put for once. Plus, she hasn’t stopped thinking about Elliot Wingate since they were briefly lovers on a rescue mission in France last year, and staying where she is provides glimpses of him. Elliot hasn’t stopped thinking about Jo, either, even though he knows he should focus on his job for the Home Office and look for a proper lady to marry, as his grandmother desires. Spying on each other and finding excuses to keep in touch, both remain sure of their feelings, but keeping secrets and suppressing desires are hard habits for either to renounce, and some of those secrets may mean it’s safer for them to stay apart. Fans of the first two Wicked Women of Whitechapel volumes will be delighted to see Blade get her time in the spotlight with this story. Unfortunately, because it overlaps significantly with the plot of the second volume, they may also feel a certain amount of déjà vu in this book's first half. It’s easy to overlook in the face of the undeniable attraction and steamy scenes between Jo and Elliot. Because they are so clearly enamored so early in the story, the narrative tension mostly derives from the suspense in a predictable but enjoyable subplot. Newcomers to the series will be fine starting with this one, which can be read as a stand-alone.
Uneven but ultimately successful feminist historical romance.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781496738134
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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
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
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