The continuing adventures of the Lawtons and their circle, hampered by uneven execution.
Half a dozen romances and other wild adventures enliven Weatherford’s historical sequel.
This follow-up to Blessings from the Four Winds (2021) takes up where that novel left off in 1887, as guests depart and servants clean up after Will Lawton and Niabi’s wedding at Applegate Ranch in Covington, Tennessee; a brief introduction helpfully provides snapshots of the main characters and locations from the previous novel. This sequel follows the newlyweds as they plan to start a family and build a homestead on land near Niabi’s tribal village, where the U.S. government is expected to open parts of what should be Native American territory to settlement by others. It also intertwines the romantic adventures of several other passionate couples: Lorraine Applegate is with Capt. Horton, despite their 10-year age difference; Sam Egglesby Jr. nearly derails his courtship of nursing student Rita Walker; Louisa Ortega is engaged to a handsome, wealthy bachelor, despite her yearning for Nashoba, and Nashoba despairs when he believes he’s lost her. In the meantime, while Mr. Hastings returns to his Texas ranch, Mrs. Hastings decides to travel to New York City; there, her beloved former chef, Oscar, and his grandfather Phillipe have promised to find a new cook for her, and she unexpectedly gains her heart’s desire. In Weatherford’s previous series entry, was Will’s adventurous travels that brought the various characters together—and to his wedding—but in the sequel, their stories diverge, and they feel more like related short stories than a cohesive novel. Although violence does occur, the difficulties that characters face are more often romantic misunderstandings; there are many interludes of passionate kissing, caressing, and lovemaking. Some of the writing is awkward, with abrupt transitions and odd choices, such as the inclusion of nearly two pages on Will’s memory of tasting his first banana, which he connects to his wife: “Every night I can look forward to peeling off the outer coverings of my most precious sweetness.” Nevertheless, readers who enjoyed the first installment of Will and Niabi’s story will undoubtedly enjoy this one.
The continuing adventures of the Lawtons and their circle, hampered by uneven execution.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798218645328
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Lucky Valley Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance from Li. Brava!
“What can a miserable man and a miserable woman do for each other?” Li illustrates how two Romantic era musicians navigated such a relationship.
An unusually placed coda serves as a prelude, not a conclusion, to Li’s recreation of the tumultuous lives of musicians Adelaide Percheron and John Field. Adelaide, an Indian-born orphan of mixed racial heritage, has just learned of the death of her estranged husband, John—credited with the development of the nocturne as a musical form—after years of living separately and pursuing their individual artistic passions. Following that intriguing introduction is an insightful account of the indirect paths each took to survive challenging early years and to advance in the world of music. John was born in Dublin in 1782 into a family of Irish musicians who invested heavily in his musical training, hoping to produce “the next Mozart” despite the talented boy’s sensitive and dreamy nature. The precocious and preternaturally self-possessed Adelaide learns the rudiments of the pianoforte from a governess and strategic life lessons from her grandmother. Eventually, she sets out from Pondicherry for the broader opportunities she believes await her in her father’s native France. Against a background of social upheaval across Europe due to revolutions and Napoleon’s rising power, the two grow and mature in musicality and pursue the lives they’ve imagined for themselves. John and Adelaide have just met, in 1807 Moscow, as this volume ends, leaving the door open for Li to explore their relationship in future installments. Peppered with interludes and glances into the future, Li’s novel explores both the modern commodification of music and the value of art as a means of ensuring immortality, a hedge against the “night” that falls when a life ends. Her keen psychological study of the musicians and their muses delivers the themes elegantly.
A virtuoso performance from Li. Brava!Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780374613051
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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