An exuberant fairy-tale homage with sly commentary about gender, class, church, and state.
Tudor-era sweethearts gather a crew of “Holy Pirates” to push back on tax corruption and retrieve stolen monastery treasures in Conlan’s romantic historical adventure novel.
Morwenna Goodwin, who’s 19 and “now of wife age,” receives courtship gifts from her childhood pal Henry Truelove, the 20-year-old son of a family wealthier than hers, residing in Truelove Manor near her family’s small freehold farm. Morwenna puts the gifts—which begin with a partridge in a pear tree and proceed as in the anachronistic song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”—to practical use. She uses some of the bounty to hire former monk Tom to teach her how to write and learn about equitable marriage contracts. Henry, who’s been away at court, returns home after learning that his father is facing ruinous taxes; he brings eight milkmaids along with him. Daisy, one of them, becomes a servant in nearby Blount Hall, helping to expose and resolve the misdeeds of the tax collector and his oafish son. Blount servant James, a former monastery student, shows Tom a bejeweled holy book given to him for safekeeping after monasteries were disbanded under Tudor rule. A former abbot also arises, having stashed a cache of books and other stolen treasure in the area. All’s well by novel’s end thanks to a festival play created by the town’s wealthy sisters that results in several marriages and an opportunity for the main couple and their band of “Holy Pirates” to spirit away the books to a protected new home. In this amusing, action-packed tale, Conlan effectively combines the loving parody of William Goldman’s classic The Princess Bride (1973) with the feminism of Karen Cushman’s Catherine, Called Birdy (1994). It encompasses a colorful cavalcade of characters, who also include an actual ex-pirate; a formerly enslaved sailor; and displaced nuns, one of whom was once a pirate hostage. Many of these characters get to express snarky social criticism during their adventures, including Tom, who notes that church officials are “sneaky and venomous as snakes, and ever changing what be true and what heresy.”
An exuberant fairy-tale homage with sly commentary about gender, class, church, and state.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1639888009
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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