Regency romance meets shape-shifters, to great effect.
A duke who’s a real alpha finds his true love.
The Honorable Felicity Templeton has one goal, and it’s an unusual goal during the season of 1817: to remain single until she's 25 in order to inherit a fortune. She’s only weeks away from achieving this when, tucked into the wallflower corner at a ball, she runs into a “Cravat of Perfection” and soon after is kidnapped by Alfred Blakesley, Duke of Lowell. The duke is so insistent because, after he senses her across the ballroom, he knows she is his “vera amoris” and he must have her. This isn’t typical toxic masculinity; Alfred is a wolf Shifter, and, what’s more, he’s the alpha of an unusual pack and anxious to secure his one true love in order to stabilize their community. Of course, this knowledge is too much for a first date, particularly when that date is in the carriage of one’s kidnapper, so his staff agrees to wait to reveal their true natures. Felicity is quickly won over by the duke’s marvelous house, and as she slowly gets to know the duke, she begins to accept him, even if his unfamiliarity with human courting rituals proves a hurdle. Though she senses something odd about her new household, her own eccentricities and natural inclination for animals keep her from being too suspicious, and when the truth finally outs, she is oddly accommodating, with tension coming from other places. Combining equal parts Regency and shifter romance, Allen ably integrates elements from each subgenre in this first volume of her Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series. Realistic period detail is complemented by shifter concepts like “dominatum” and “sentio” and accompanied by sparkling dialogue and steamy chemistry, so that even as the plot grows darker, the story is leavened by an inherent lightness that perhaps only a shifter romance set on Regency pages can provide. Though lovers of traditional Regencies may find the story strays too far beyond the boundaries of the ton, many will enjoy this new approach to well-known tropes—a book that respects both subgenres and, in doing so, may well create a new one.
Regency romance meets shape-shifters, to great effect.Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72823-036-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and sparkling adult debut.
A romance ghostwriter who’s lost her motivation after a breakup is haunted by the spirit of her newly departed editor in this whimsical paranormal romance.
Florence Day doesn't believe in love or happily-ever-afters any longer. Unfortunately, she’s also the ghostwriter for a prominent romance novelist and is currently trying to finish her fourth and final contracted book. The deadline for her latest manuscript has already been pushed back several times, and her new editor, Benji Andor, isn’t allowing for any leeway. Florence can also see ghosts, an ability that’s made quite a name for her in her hometown but also partly contributed to the devastating end of her previous relationship. On the eve of her deadline, Florence finds her life upended by both an unexpected kiss with her editor and the sudden death of her beloved father. Returning home comes with its own set of baggage, though Florence holds out hope that her father’s ghost will appear for one last goodbye. She’s shocked, however, when the spirit that visits her isn’t her father but Ben Andor, mysteriously dead only a day after she’d met him. Now Florence must not only navigate her grief and fulfill her dad's last wishes, she must also contend with Ben’s confused ghost following her around until they can correct his unfinished business. The zippy banter between Florence and nearly everyone she meets keeps things moving at a sprightly clip. Every interaction is a delight, and getting to know the cast of characters in Florence’s orbit adds excitement to the book. The romance takes a bit longer to build, though, and flits in and out of focus. Florence and Ben share such chemistry that it’s a shame readers are often left waiting for them to interact. The ghostly element is fun and fresh, adding slightly higher stakes to Florence and Ben's happily-ever-after.
A sweet and sparkling adult debut.Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-33648-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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