A thought-provoking and action-packed series finale.
A magickal Fey community works together to celebrate life and fight against evil.
In the third and final installment of Roberts’ Dragon Heart Legacy series, Breen Kelly has made a life for herself in Talamh, a mystical realm reached through a portal in Ireland. In Talamh, Breen has found love and acceptance in the Fey community. She has settled into a passionate, romantic relationship with Keegan, the leader of the Fey. Breen is learning more about her powers and explores how to control and harness the magick she was born with, along with discovering new powers that belong to her alone. However, Breen realizes Talamh is still in danger. Although the Fey community has successfully held off attacks from Breen's grandfather the god Odran, Talamh will never be safe as long as he is alive. The Fey refuse to live in fear, and people in the village celebrate both weddings and births as they prepare for what they hope will be the final battle with the vengeful god. All signs and prophecies indicate that Breen will play a key role in defeating Odran. As Breen gains control of her powers, she also has disturbing dreams about Odran’s plans. Breen’s visions reveal that several Fey are actually Odran’s spies. The Fey are pained by this betrayal, wondering how their loved ones could be so steeped in poisonous hatred that they turned their backs on their own people. Roberts explores how communities battle evil from without and within. In the end, the community’s bonds of love and loyalty show how good can defeat evil, a classic fantasy theme that continues to stay relevant.
A thought-provoking and action-packed series finale.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2502-7272-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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