An uneven but still welcome addition to the Gregory cannon.
In the second of Gregory’s Fairmile series—after Tidelands (2019)—Venetian intrigue meets English gullibility.
When we last saw Alinor Reekie, she had been cast out of her Sussex tidelands home after being “swum” as a witch. Twenty-one years after their escape to London, Alinor and her older daughter, Alys, run a small import-export warehouse while 21-year-old twins Sarah and Johnnie are learning a trade. Now, in 1670, Sir James, Alinor’s former lover, who failed to defend her against the witch-hunters, has come into his noble estate and arrives, far too belatedly, to offer to marry Alinor. He's also hoping to claim the child she was carrying at the time of her exile as his heir, but Alinor rejects him, telling him cryptically that he has no child. There is no clear protagonist here. White-haired Alinor, “not yet fifty,” whose health never recovered from her near drowning, has been shunted into an advisory role. Into this modest but content household slinks Livia, a sultry Venetian, self-professed widow of Alinor’s son Rob, a physician in Venice who accidentally drowned. “La Nobildonna” (title courtesy of her first late husband) seeks shelter with her infant son, Matteo. Alinor is suspicious—her clairvoyance would have warned her of Rob’s death. Readers will not need second sight to distrust Livia, but it’s fun to watch her swindle—involving ancient statuary—take shape. Unsurprisingly, her long game is to ensnare the ever susceptible Sir James. In what could be a separate novel, Alinor’s brother Ned, a staunch “Leveler,” has immigrated to New England. The détente between English settlers and Native tribes is beginning to fray, and Ned, in an exposition-heavy but very instructive parallel plot, is trying his best to advocate for the Natives. However, readers will be tempted to skip Ned’s sections to see whether Sarah, also gifted with second sight, can rescue the family. Someone has to!
An uneven but still welcome addition to the Gregory cannon.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-8718-6
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.
A boy band cruise is the site of one woman’s post-divorce healing.
Annie never meant to end up alone on a Boy Talk cruise, but that’s exactly what happens when her sister breaks a leg and has to bow out of their vacation. Now Annie is sharing a cabin with a stranger, stuck on the cruise ship American Fantasy with the 1990s band—and thousands of their biggest fans, known as Talkers. Annie doesn’t consider herself a Talker, even if she was a fan back in the day. But reeling from a recent divorce and dealing with complex feelings about turning 50, Annie throws herself into the distraction of the trip. What she doesn’t expect is to truly connect with the music, the band, the other fans, and herself. As Annie observes, “This was why people turned to religion or watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar instead of alone in their living room. It felt good to be a part of something where your passion was celebrated instead of mocked.” All the Talkers dream of having a special bond with “the guys,” but when Annie actually does meet Keith, a Boy Talk member who’s clearly going through a hard time, she wonders if their connection is real or if she’s just as delusional as the other (mostly) women on the ship. Straub depicts a wonderfully immersive world aboard the American Fantasy, one where each woman assigns herself a favorite guy and everyone is bedecked in Boy Talk merch. For five days, the Talkers live in a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is their connection with a band that meant everything to them so many years ago. As Annie puts it, “Inside her head, which is where she heard the music, it had touched some lever so deep that it couldn’t be reversed…the music was a direct vein to her own childhood, the least complicated part of her life.”
A delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217046850
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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