Forbidden desires add to Jamaica’s steamy climate in this compelling historical romance.
Colonial Jamaica brims with longing, heat, and mystery in Graham’s historical novel.
Jamaica in the 1790s is not the island paradise that we know today. Heat, humidity, a constant drone of insects, daily storms, seasonal hurricanes, and natural disasters like earthquakes combine with the colonial problems of slavery, racism, smuggling, and political upheaval to create an ominous backdrop for an engrossing historical romance. Rhiannon Wynne Ross, an outspoken young woman “accustomed to having her opinion respected and her conversation requested,” has come to Jamaica from England to confront her husband, Albert Ross, the owner of the Fain Hill plantation. “An aging widower, he’d married Rhiannon not for companionship but for the chance of an heir—a legitimate heir,” but shortly after their wedding, he abruptly left England to return to Jamaica. While waiting for his return, Rhiannon visits her dear friend, Elisabeth Graham, in Philadelphia, where the dashing Scotsman Liam Brock helps her bid on a boardinghouse she hopes to run. The “grudging friendship” between Liam and Rhiannon grows into a mutual attraction before she leaves for Jamaica to confront her husband about financial matters. Meanwhile, Liam takes on the responsibility of escorting a young woman to Jamaica to reunite with her father, thinking that Rhiannon is on her way back to Philadelphia. However, Rhiannon has stayed in Jamaica, where she learns that her husband’s plantation is almost bankrupt. Circumstances conspire to throw Liam and Rhiannon together repeatedly, and their attraction smolders, rendered sultrily in Graham’s heated prose (“He turned his head to kiss the inside of her wrist, taking care not to scrape it over stubble, and her racing pulse shuddered past the tip of his tongue. He stifled a groan”). Background information about the protagonists is seamlessly woven throughout a well-plotted narrative; this book can be read as a stand-alone, though it is the third in a series. Written with sensitivity and remarkable insight into the lives of women, the enslaved, and other populations relegated to the margins of colonial history, this is an absorbing yarn.
Forbidden desires add to Jamaica’s steamy climate in this compelling historical romance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
