An often frothy romance that manages to expertly combine emotional heft with pure escapism.
In Ready’s novel, a young woman receives a magical watch and then, after she falls in love, fights to make her dream life a reality.
The third book in Ready’s Ghosted series introduces Moonbeam Clover Fiona Abry (who’s insisted on going by “Fiona” ever since she was 8 years old). After inheriting her family’s Swiss watch business in Geneva following her father’s death, she and her brother, Daniel, have managed to pull the business out of near-bankruptcy. Fiona, a single mother, decided long ago to never open herself up to love, mainly because her own flighty mother intermittently abandoned her as a child. Her best friend, Max,still tries his hardest to woo her nevertheless. Fiona’s mother gives her a long-lost family heirloom—a watch from her heretofore unknown Uncle Leopold. When Fiona wears it, the watch gives Fiona dreams of her greatest desire. Fiona finds herself on a tropical island where everyone calls her “Becca”; she’s married to a handsome man named McCormick and has two delightful young children. Fiona decides to settle back and enjoy her recurrent dreams, since she feels her heart is protected from truly caring about this “fantasy”; then she unexpectedly begins to fall hopelessly in love with her sensitive, thoughtful dream husband. Although Fiona attempts to try her hand at romance with Max in reality, she can’t stop thinking about McCormick. A series of shocking twists make Fiona question everything she thought she knew—including herself.
Readers of conventional romances come to expect certain genre elements, and Ready does indeed deliver them over the course of this novel, but her real talent comes in subverting such familiar beats just enough so that readers begin to question how (or even if) certain events will come to pass. Although the book has plenty of swoonworthy romance—McCormick is basically a beach god—the author also hits on heavier themes that are less common in the genre, including abandonment, infidelity, motherhood, and duty. Ready has a lot to say about each, and she does so with wit and empathy. At one point, for example, when Fiona explainshow she fell in love with McCormick in her dreams, she describes it as “a gradual thing, like the flow of the gentle tide washing over a softly sanded golden beach. At least that’s what I tell myself when I’m lying….Well, we don’t lie in dreams, do we? Everyone knows that dreams are where we tell ourselves the truth.” The dialogue feels pleasantly natural throughout, and almost all the characters are well developed. That said, a few people, such as McCormick’s supposed best friend, Robert, veer into caricature. Fiona’s and Max’s attempts at moving their nine-year friendship into romantic territory is particularly earnest and realistic—so much so that readers might even have trouble deciding whether the very real Max or the very dreamy McCormick is the best match for Fiona.
An often frothy romance that manages to expertly combine emotional heft with pure escapism.Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781954007772
Page Count: 492
Publisher: W.W. Crown
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2024
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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