A masterful, original take on a beloved fairy tale is sure to please romance readers.
A gender-swapped “Cinderella” about an heiress and a custodian in 1832 London.
After her father’s untimely death, Isabella Lira must marry to secure her family’s business and standing. Her father sat on the London Commission of Delegates, an organization that works with the Crown for the safety and security of the entire Jewish community in England, while also co-owning a business with the powerful Berab brothers. The three brothers each offer to marry her, hoping to secure total control of the shared business. Isabella wants to preserve her own influence in the company, so she hatches a plan to find another suitor—one outside the sphere of the Berab family. She's going to throw three festivals in three weeks, between the holidays of Passover and Lag b’Omer, and she enlists the help of Aaron Ellenberg, an unlikely ally. Aaron exists in a strange liminal space in the community: He’s a kindhearted and gentle man who has never successfully found a job or home of his own. The community supports him by providing work as a custodian in the synagogue. He has become expert at observing everyone and everything while remaining invisible in the background. Isabella asks him to spy on prospective suitors at her parties to help her find one who won't try to control her—a man with a secret that Isabella could hold over him. In return, she offers Aaron 200 pounds, enough money for him to have a home and family, which had always seemed like an impossible dream. Isabella and Aaron should have nothing in common, but while working together they learn to respect and love each other despite their differences in status and the many obstacles in their way. It’s an engaging and sexy romance, almost old-school in its complexity, complete with genuine conflict, delicious tension, and dense, meaty subplots.
A masterful, original take on a beloved fairy tale is sure to please romance readers.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781538722541
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
A fast-paced Victorian romance packed with as much criminality as chemistry.
Sparks fly at Scotland Yard.
Once again, Miss Allie Prince has been left behind. Her adventurous siblings are off on a quest, leaving her to run their antiquities shop, Princes of London. Just as she accepts that she’s in for a few boring and lonely weeks, however, life takes an exciting turn when she pops across the street to the coffeehouse and overhears what sounds like a plot to steal the Crown Jewels. She’s so convinced that something is wrong that she heads to Scotland Yard, where she’s met by DI Benedict Drake, who is “distractingly appealing” and seems to take her somewhat seriously, which is a welcome change. Unbeknownst to her, Drake is in the midst of a chilling cat-and-mouse game with a dangerous criminal, and he dismisses her without agreeing to look into the matter further. Despite his heavy workload, though, he finds he can’t stop thinking about either Allie or the potential criminal conspiracy she’s reported. It’s not long before he heads to the coffeehouse in question to set up some minor surveillance, just in case, and they meet again. Despite Drake’s attempts to keep her from getting involved, Allie’s instincts keep leading her into the middle of the fray, and as the case gets more intense, so does their connection. Historical romance fans who like a healthy amount of suspense with their stories will enjoy the first volume in Carlyle’s new Princes of London series, especially because, despite the title, this is an outside-the-ton story with no need for society drama to liven it up. Both Allie and Drake are well-drawn characters, and though they fall for each other perhaps too quickly, their mutual respect is beautifully portrayed. The conclusion of the mystery isn’t terribly satisfying, but the happy ending more than makes up for it.
A fast-paced Victorian romance packed with as much criminality as chemistry.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780063347342
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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