A historical romance of impressive heft.
An accidental father and a woman without a past combine to create an unusual family.
In 1812, families across England are devastated to hear of the wreck of the Minerva, a passenger ship en route from Jamaica. None is more upset than Daniel Thackery, Earl of Ashbrook, who was expecting Phoebe Dunn to arrive after they fell in love by correspondence and married by proxy. When he arrives at the docks, he’s instead presented with a toddler, one of the only survivors. Though Phoebe hadn't said anything about having a child, the girl is a "Blackamoor," like Phoebe and Daniel, and he decides to pretend he's her father and raise her in London. He names her Hope. Unbeknownst to Daniel, however, the girl's actual mother has also survived the wreck. Jemina St. Maur arrived in England suffering from amnesia and was put straight into Bedlam Hospital; she's lucky to be liberated with help from the Widow's Grace, a secret group led by Daniel's aunt that's devoted to helping women in trouble. Daniel and Jemina are charmed by each other, but it isn't until Jemina learns that Daniel knows more about her unremembered past than he's let on that their lives truly collide. The more they interact—particularly after Hope meets Jemina and grows attached—the more it seems clear they should be together. But their relationship is built on a series of lies and possibly even a complex conspiracy against Jemina, so it’s not clear they will be able to do so. In the second volume of the Rogues and Remarkable Women series, Riley builds on the world she first unfolded in A Duke, the Lady, and the Baby (2020), and readers should start there before moving to this volume. But it’s worth the investment, and fans of the first book will be delighted by this story, which brings the same elaborate storytelling and portrayal of a more diverse Regency world than is traditionally found. Riley’s commitment to writing the complex emotions of motherhood remains a crucial part of the series—also a welcome addition to the genre. Well-researched, with a fascinating author's note at the end, this story proves the first was no fluke.
A historical romance of impressive heft.Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4201-5225-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.
A TV producer and a detective try to stop a strange pattern of young women disappearing.
In “Auclair, Loooziana,” disillusioned detective John Bowie reluctantly meets in a bar with Beth Collins, producer for the true crime show Crisis Point. She needs to interview him about the disastrous case of the missing Crissy Mellin, but he refuses. The teenager disappeared three years ago on the night of a blood moon and hasn’t been found, but a suspect hanged himself in jail after signing a confession. Case closed, says John’s boss. But John is convinced that their prisoner could not have been guilty, and he’s deeply upset at his failure. “The Mellin case messed up your life,” Beth tells him. She persuades John that Crissy’s disappearance is the latest of a series that happen on the night of a blood moon, the colloquial term for a total lunar eclipse. “It’s going to happen again,” she predicts. And wouldn’t you know, another blood moon is coming in four days. Tick, tick, tick. Beth’s boss at Crisis Point insists on airing an update on the case, but Beth knows the show is going to get it wrong, and its reputation will be ruined. Meanwhile, there’s an electric sexual tension between Beth and John that the author toys with nicely—do they, or don’t they? The answer plays out in detail more than once. The characters are fun if easy to pigeonhole: the detective angry at his failure, the honest (and beautiful) outsider eager to do her job but susceptible to love, the hero’s corrupt (to say the least) boss, and the ogre who carries out said boss’s dirtiest deeds. Even John’s dog, Mutt, plays a small but vital role. When John found him, he’d been “a flea-bitten hide wrapped around a skeleton that whimpered.” Little plot devices are easy to spot, like the phone that rings at a crucial moment, or the handgun that John places in Beth’s hand for her protection. Does Chekhov’s guideline apply here? The romantic angle leavens the dark theme, and readers will have plenty of incentives to turn the pages.
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538742983
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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