Historical Fiction

Book Review: THE FOX AND THE DEVIL by Kiersten White

| Jessica Crawford
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The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White is a 368 page standalone novel from Del Rey with a publish date of March 10, 2026.

Genre/Subgenres:

Horror, Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic

Blurb:

An obsession with a beautiful serial killer entangles a vampire hunter’s daughter in an immortal sapphic romance in this enthralling gothic fantasy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy Undying.

Anneke has a complicated relationship with her father, Abraham Van Helsing—doctor, scientist, and madman devoted to studying vampires—up until the night she comes home to find him murdered, with a surreally beautiful woman looming over his body. A woman who leaves no trace behind, other than the dreams and nightmares that plague Anneke every night.

Spurred by her desire for vengeance and armed with the latest in forensic and investigatory techniques, Anneke puts together a team of detectives to catch her mysterious serial killer. Because her father isn’t the only inexplicably dead body. There’s a trail of victims across Europe and Anneke is certain they’re all connected.

But during the years spent relentlessly hunting the killer, Anneke keeps some crucial evidence to infuriatingly coy letters, addressed only to Anneke, occasionally soaked in blood, and always signed Diavola. Devil. The obsession is mutual, and all the more dangerous for it.

The closer Anneke gets to her devil, though, the less sense the world makes. Maybe her father wasn’t a madman, after all. Diavola might be something much worse than a serial killer . . . and much harder to destroy. Because as Anneke unearths more of Diavola’s tragic past, she suspects there’s still a heart somewhere in that undead body.

A heart that beats for Anneke alone.

Opening Line:

As the crowd screams, all Henri thinks is that he’s going to be in so much trouble when his parents find out.

My Thoughts:

☠ Nineteenth century Europe
☠ Van Helsing’s daughter
☠ Murder investigations
☠ Found family
☠ Sapphic yearning
☠ Vampires!

It’s so easy to think yourself hunter only to discover you’ve always been prey.

In late nineteenth century Amsterdam, a young Anneke Van Helsing spies a creature of unnatural beauty standing over the prone and bleeding form of her father. The rest of the world believes Abraham Van Helsing took his own life, but Anneke knows better. She devotes the next several years of her life to training in forensic detective work. When a spree of bizarre deaths begin cropping up all over Europe, she alone makes the connection with her own father’s end. Finally she has caught scent of the mysterious woman, and the hunt she has long fixated on begins in earnest.

Have you been hunting me all this time? That makes me sad. He doesn’t deserve your devotion.

Our main character teams up with a lovely crew who together investigate the trail of bodies, becoming like family to one another as they devote themselves to Anneke’s search for her Diavola and vengeance for her father. Anneke spends just as much time pining for the beautiful woman she is pursuing across the continent as she does fantasizing about killing her. When Diavola begins sending her taunting letters, one wonders who is tracking whom? And as she learns more about her quarry, the question arises: have they been hunting the wrong monster all along?

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” he whispered. “Men always do.”

The setting in this book is quite fetching–canal houses in Amsterdam, cafes in Budapest, an abandoned village of the Greek islands, and finally to the Paris world’s fair, l’Exposition Universelle, for ultimate added flavor. Cinematographs, magnetic audio recorders, and the advent of the use of fingerprints in crime scene analysis further cement the reader in Anneke’s world.

The characters are easy to root for. Anneke is a competent (albeit obsessed) woman in a male-dominated field, and her companions, though we don’t dive too deep beneath the surface with them (the story is told almost entirely from Anneke’s first person POV), are quite likable. There is romance, but mostly consisting of yearning and with no explicit spicy scenes. On the other hand, LOTS of horrifying murder and corpse examination scenes (the deaths mostly relayed after the fact during the investigation phase rather than on the page).

There was a little while in the middle of this book when I wondered if it really needed to be as long as it is, but that isn’t to say the plot dragged for me at any point. In the end, I was most definitely satisfied with the story that had unfolded. Each of Kiersten White’s books that I read I enjoy even more than the one before, but I’m not sure how long that trend can continue as her work at this point is pretty fantastic! I am intrigued to see where she’ll go from here.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: LADY TREMAINE by Rachel Hochhauser

| Jessica Crawford

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser is a 352 page standalone novel with a publish date of March 3rd, 2026.

Genre:

Fairytale Retelling, Historical Fiction

Blurb:

A breathtaking reimagining of Cinderella, as told through the eyes of its iconic “evil” stepmother, revealing a propulsive love story about the lengths a mother will go to for her children

A widow twice-over, Etheldreda is now saddled with the care of her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, and a razor-taloned peregrine falcon. Her entire life has become a ruse, just like the manor hall they live grand and ornate on the exterior, but crumbling, brick by brick, inside. Fierce in the face of her misfortune, Ethel clings to her family’s respectability, the lifeboat that will float her daughters straight into the secure banks of marriage.

When a royal ball offers the chance to secure the future she desperately desires, Etheldreda must risk her secrets, pride, and limited resources in pursuit of an invitation for her daughters—only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the heir of the kingdom unfolds with unnerving speed, she discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she’s sought for years and the wellbeing of the feckless stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn.

As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world’s most famous fairytale. It is a battle cry for a mother’s love for her daughters, and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes.

Opening Line:

I’ve been warned to be wary of strangers in the woods since I was a little girl.

My Thoughts:

Well, I had no idea I needed the story of Cinderella’s stepmother in my life, but it turns out I very much did!

This book does not contain any wand-waving magic, just a mother fighting to secure stable futures for her daughters. It gifts readers with the stories of Ethel’s girlhood and two marriages, setting the scene for the circumstances in which she finds herself when her two daughters and one stepdaughter all come of marriageable age. The flames of hope are fanned anew within the family when the palace issues invitations to a ball being held for the purpose of finding the prince a wife. Amidst the stresses of preparing the young women for the big event is Ethel’s worry that her own personal history with the prince’s mother, the queen herself, might stand in the way of the family’s happily-ever-after.

The author skillfully makes each of the characters from the story of Cinderella (well, most of them, at least!) sympathetic while also making the reader want to grab ahold of each of them at times and shake. Additionally, the manner in which the details from the Disney tale were woven into this version were often delightful. I was invested in these characters and the course their lives would take, and I have to say, the resolution was both rather shocking and epic!

Lady Tremaine is not perfect, but she is a wonderful heroine to spend your reading time with, and her inspiring story is not likely to leave my thoughts any time soon.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Book Review: GRACELESS HEART by Isabel Ibañez

| Jessica Crawford

Graceless Hearts by Isabel Ibañez is a 488 page standalone novel with a publish date of January 13, 2026 by Saturday Books.

Genre:

Historical Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis:

A lush, atmospheric and achingly magical standalone adult fantasy romance set in Renaissance Italy from a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

In 15th-century Volterra, sculptress Ravenna Maffei enters a competition hosted by a secretive, immortal family who offer an invaluable boon to the victor. Desperate to win so she can save her brother, Ravenna reveals a rare magical talent-a dangerous act in a city where magic is forbidden. Her revelation makes her a target, and she is kidnapped by the Luni family and taken to Florence, a city of breathtaking beauty and cutthroat ambition.

There, Ravenna is forced into an impossible task where failure means certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the family’s enigmatic and merciless heir. But under his cold reserve hides a vulnerability that draws her closer than she ever intended.

Meanwhile, Ravenna’s forbidden magic does not go unnoticed. The Pope, waging war against Florence, the Medici, and magic itself, has his own interest in her abilities, seeing her as a potential weapon in his ruthless campaign.

As alliances shift and war brews on the horizon, Ravenna must navigate the treacherous line between survival and betrayal, between love and duty. With time running out and her every move watched, the choices she makes will determine the fate of not just her own life, but the fragile balance of magic and power that could unravel Florence itself.

Opening Line:

Ravenna Maffei disliked magic because her parents did, but on the day her aunt took her to visit the quarry for the first time, she learned what it was to truly loathe it.

My Thoughts:

First of all, Readers, let’s please take a moment to appreciate the stunning cover of this Historical Romantasy novel. So pretty!

Okay, now with that out of the way…

Sculptress Ravenna’s story takes place in a version of fifteenth century Italy that includes elements of the supernatural and the magical: fae, witches, and vampyres, oh my! This captivating set dressing adorns a tale deeply rooted in actual history. There is a large focus on the political unrest that featured Lorenzo de Medici and his various family members and associates at its center. The story takes us from Volterra to the glittering jewel of Florence during the height of the Renaissance…and then there’s the pope of unholy greed. He condemns anything that bears even a whiff of magic, while using its power to his own benefit. Our main character Ravenna has inherited a hint of magic herself, and thus becomes a pawn in the machinations of powerful people.

The premise of this story is great, and the setting is ::chef’s kiss::. Unfortunately, I felt the romance part of the tale leaves much to be desired, and between that and what seemed to me an unnecessary length for the story being told, my final rating dropped down a star.

It was a bit frustrating that so much of what Ravenna does in this story she is forced to do by one party or another, rarely having any agency of her own. And while I often dig the morally gray characters and antiheroes, I have to agree with another reviewer that what homegirl actually experiences with Saturnino here is Stockholm Syndrome, not true love with her captor for showing her a couple acts of kindness amidst regular abuse. And while this is an “Adult” romance due to a few spicy scenes (mostly blanketed in euphemism, so not terribly explicit), the romance aspect came across to me as sort of…unsophisticated? I just mean that, although the characters were certainly unique, the writing specific to their romance felt like the same stuff I’ve read a hundred times before. It seemed like I could predict what would be said next in the writing, just when the hero would lean back against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles and say something condescending while looking smoldering hot and smelling like snow-covered pine trees. Really, in general this felt more like a YA book, but marketed as Adult simply so the sexy scenes could be included.

Additionally, when the switch flipped in the relationship between Ravenna and Saturnino, it was a sudden and complete 180. And I just couldn’t understand why Ravenna did some of the things she did, like so often doing risky things when she feared he was in mortal danger, despite knowing that he is, you know, immortal.

I also think the pacing here fell a bit short. After things being drawn out for so long, all of a sudden a lot of major things happen near the end – at least, the reader is told they are, without actually being shown much of it happening. At least up until the climactic scene, which was good (although I did predict the “twist” at least a couple hundred of pages earlier).

So there was certainly a lot to enjoy here, but by the end I felt let down. Still 3 solid stars for the things that worked well, though.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Saturday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: THE WHITE OCTOPUS HOTEL by Alexandra Bell

| Jessica Crawford

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell is a 369 page standalone novel with a publish date of 10/28/25 by Del Rey

Genre:

Fantasy/Magical Realism

Subgenres:

Historical Fiction, Romance

Blurb:

Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover that behind its many doors, they may just find a second chance.

‘Have you travelled a long way?’ she asked carefully. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, yes,” he said slowly. ‘Yes, you could say that. But it was worth the wait.’

London, 2015

When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her London office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her.

His name is Max Everly – curiously, the same name as Eve’s favourite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she can’t shake the feeling that she’s held his hand before . . . but where, and when?

The White Octopus Hotel, 1935

Decades earlier, high in the snowy Swiss Alps, Eve and a young Max Everly wander the winding halls of the grand belle epoque White Octopus Hotel, lost in time.

Each of them has been through the trenches – Eve in a family accident and Max on the battlefields of the Great War – but for an impossible moment, love and healing are just a room away . . . if only they have the courage to step through the door.

Opening Line:

Eve didn’t want to turn around because then she would see it.

My Thoughts

What a special story this was about regret and finding a steady hand to hold yours in the dark! It’s got:

✓ A magical hotel
✓ Time travel
✓ Scavenger hunt/puzzles
✓ Working through grief

Eve Shaw is haunted (quite literally) by a tragic event from her childhood, and she would do anything to change what happened. When she finds herself transported back in time to a magnificent hotel known to house various magical objects, she might just get that chance.

I will say that I think this book took too long setting up before starting the meat of the story. Even without reading the synopsis, the story has the reader expecting Eve to travel to the White Octopus Hotel and to the past, but this doesn’t actually happen until around 40% into the book. Up until that point I thought the book was just fine, but that’s when it got good–and then, as I read on, it wound up being something rather extraordinary!

We have Eve, an artwork appraiser at an auction house in 2016 whose octopus tattoo moves itself around her body at will, and who finds herself participating in a scavenger hunt at the White Octopus Hotel in 1935 for the chance to win a magical object that could allow her to rewrite her past.

And then we have Max Everly, music composer and junior officer in World War I who is sent to the hotel in the Swiss Alps in 1918 to convalesce as a POW.

These two meet multiple times throughout history (but it’s always only the first time for one of them!) The bond between them acts as a light in each of their lives, and “after all, a single candle could make all the difference in the dark”. Eve eventually is forced to reckon with the knowledge that changing her own story will have consequences that ripple through time. Either way, someone she cares for is going to have to get hurt.

I really loved the specifics of the different magical aspects in this story. Was I left with some questions, for logistics? Sure. But the helpful tentacles, the creepy yet sympathetic Eavesdropper, the war horse returning lost objects in the steam baths–delightful!

Personally, I don’t usually appreciate comps because so often they set me up for disappointment, but for readers who look for that kind of information I will say that this book had me at different times feeling hints of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Warm Hands of Ghosts vibes.

In all I found this to be an exciting, touching, and hopeful magical love story with an overall theme of making peace with the past. I plan to check out more of this author’s work for sure.

Now, if I may share a couple of quibbles, which obviously were not egregious enough to drop my rating from 5 splendid stars. The writing itself was not bad by any means, but it was just a bit basic. And this last bit could be considered a tad spoilery, so please avoid if that bothers you, but it was odd to me that Eve, despite already having a crush on Max before meeting him, did not form any romantic feelings for him when she knew him in his thirties and he pledged to help her with whatever she needed, but then fell in love with him while he was a traumatized teenager in the midst of a mental health crisis. This seemed a bit ick to me.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review!

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Book Review: THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis

| Jessica Crawford

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is a 240 page debut novel published in 2025 by Henry Holt and Co.

Genre:

Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

The Blurb

Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbed to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.

The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.

As relevant today as any time before, The Hounding celebrates the wild breaks from convention we’re all sometimes pulled toward, and wonders if, in a world like this one, it isn’t safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.

Opening Line:

The girls, the infernal heat, the fresh-dead body.

My Thoughts:

“Wherever we go, however we behave, there’ll always be something to drive us inside. That’s where people want us to be.”

The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs. — For once I think the comp offered by the publisher is an apt one and not just marketing nonsense.

The atmosphere in this book is set perfectly, with the people of Little Nettlebed set on edge by the hot baking sun and the drought negatively impacting livelihoods. The five Mansfield sisters are unconventional, and a delusionally arrogant neighbor becomes obsessed with putting them in their place. Mob mentality takes over the villagers, even affecting those who try their hardest to resist.

I think the themes of this story are explored wonderfully. I also think the characterization is well done, it’s just that the manner of storytelling doesn’t allow the reader to delve too deeply into any single character. Third person POVs shift among five different villagers throughout the book, and we get a good sense of each of them. But the story revolves around their interactions with and feelings about the Mansfield sisters, whose own POVs we do not get directly. I thought this was the perfect way to tell their story.

He searched within his soul and saw a terrible truth: that he’d rather they were dogs than damaged girls…He’d rather they were free than confined…

I included this book in my spooky season reading not because it’s horror (it’s not) or brings autumn feels to life on the page (nope), but for the witch hunt vibes, and in this it did not disappoint!

Disclaimer: Maine Coon cat Freya does not approve of any hounding whatsoever

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Book Review: AMITY by Nathan Harris

| Jessica Crawford

Amity by Nathan Harris is a 320 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Little, Brown and Company of Hatchette Book Group.

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Synopsis:

A gripping story about a brother and sister, emancipated from slavery but still searching for true freedom, and their odyssey across the deserts of Mexico to finally reunite, all while escaping a former master still intent on their bondage

New Orleans, 1866. The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico, where he hoped to escape the new reality of the post-war South. Coleman stayed behind in Louisiana to serve the Harper family, clinging to the hope that one day June would return.

When an unexpected letter from Mr. Harper arrives, summoning Coleman to Mexico, Coleman thinks that finally his prayers have been answered. What Coleman cannot know is the tangled truth of June’s tribulations under Mr. Harper out on the frontier. And when disaster strikes Coleman’s journey, he is forced on the run with Mr. Harper’s daughter, Florence. Together, they venture into the Mexican desert to find June, all the while evading two crooked brothers who’ll stop at nothing to capture Coleman and Florence and collect the money they’re owed. As Coleman and June separately navigate a perilous, parched landscape, the siblings learn quickly that freedom isn’t always given—sometimes, it must be taken by force.

As in his New York Times bestselling debut The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris delves into the critical years of the Civil War’s aftermath to deliver an intimate and epic tale of what freedom means in a society still determined to return its Black citizens to bondage. Populated with unforgettable characters, Amity is a vital addition to the literature of emancipation.

Opening Line:

I had few pleasures to call my own.

My Thoughts:

This is a work of historical fiction taking place in the American South and Mexico in the years immediately post-Civil War. POVs alternate between siblings Coleman and June, servants of the family who owned them as slaves before the North’s victory freed them. Still stinging from the Confederacy’s loss, the patriarch of the family takes June with him as he joins a group of other disgruntled Southerners who travel to Mexico in order to establish a new mining town and get out from the under the laws of the Union. Later, the man’s wife and daughter, along with Coleman and the family dog, strike out to join them. The journey presents a multitude of dangers and interesting characters – criminals, Mexican soldiers, Black Seminoles, and others.

What I liked about this book included the setting and atmosphere. There is the harsh beauty of the desert, the chapparal and mesquite trees beneath the baking sun, but also the towns strung along their path south, which reminded me of being ensconced in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. This video game takes place about 30 years later, but I could easily picture Arthur Morgan and his outlaw companions riding their horses through the territories of this book.

Also enjoyable was the character of Coleman, a former slave and current servant who is happiest lost in the pages of his books, taught himself academics and proper comportment both from the books assigned to the daughter of his employers for her education, and who has a sweet bond with the book’s canine character, Oliver. Additionally, there is a side character who exhibits some nice personal growth.

What didn’t work so well for me is a bit harder for me to name. I just wasn’t that engaged in the plot, which meandered at times (particularly during June’s page time) without a real sense of urgency or expected destination, figuratively speaking. In this way I suppose the pacing was a bit off, and I certainly wouldn’t use the word “gripping” to describe my own reading experience. At the conclusion of the book I thought to myself, “Well that’s nice,” but it really isn’t anything that I anticipate staying with me for long now that I have finished reading. I guess I appreciated the vibes more than the story. 

Book Review: THE ART OF A LIE by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

| Jessica Crawford

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is a 304 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Atria Books.

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Subgenres:

Mystery, thriller

Synopsis:

In 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, and intrigue and a battle of wits in this masterful historical novel from the author of the USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens.

Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her confectionary shop on Piccadilly is barely turning a profit, her suppliers conspiring to put her out of business because they don’t like women in trade. Henry Fielding, the famous author-turned-magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent.

Only William Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. He also tells her about an Italian delicacy called iced cream, an innovation she is convinced will transform the fortunes of her shop. But their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything she can imagine.

Opening Line:

Nine times out of ten, when a customer walks into the Punchbowl and Pineapple, I can guess what will tempt them.

My Thoughts:

This author’s previous novel was my favorite book I read in all of 2024. This one wasn’t as much of a homerun for me.

The writing style is quite good, and it is evident that a lot of research went into bringing 18th century London to life upon the pages here. From Hannah Cole’s confectionary shop to the various parks, grand homes, and gambling houses, the details all rang as authentic and do an admirable job dropping the reader directly into the setting. This story is a decent one featuring widows, murderers, con artists, and one satirical novelist turned crime-busting magistrate based off of a real historical figure. There is a mystery that largely stems from not knowing which information you can and cannot trust.

However, I found myself kind of annoyed spending time with the main characters. The story alternates between two points of view, and while the reader knows when one person or the other is being lied to, it can be quite frustrating when the characters themselves are unaware of this. You spend your reading time wondering if and when things will come to light for them, or if their part of the tale will continue to see them reacting to false pretenses. This set up had me feeling kind of angsty, and knowing what I knew as the reader sort of left a bad taste in my mouth as I read on.

Many other reviewers seemed to really appreciate the ending, but I have to say that to me it seemed rather sudden and underwhelming. Especially considering this author’s other work, I was expecting the rug to be pulled out from under me in much more dramatic fashion at the last moment. There were still unexpected twists throughout, but the final one didn’t really wow me the way I think it was intended to.

But in all this is still well written historical fiction with some twisty mystery for added spice. I just had difficulty enjoying my time with the characters in this one.

Much gratitude to NetGalley for the eARC.

Book Review: THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly

| Jessica Crawford

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a 336 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Ballantine Books.

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Synopsis:

2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.

1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late?

My Thoughts:

Not a perfect fit for me, but there were things I enjoyed about this book, including the strong sense of place whisking me away to the beaches and cottages of 1940s Martha’s Vineyard. The historical fiction aspects were nice, including the ways WWII changed day to day life for civilians. The love for literature was great, as of course an author expects when they know their audience is going to be, well, readers!

A few things that niggled at me included the sudden and complete 180 between the two lovebirds for no discernible reason, the painful contractions and elevated BPs and edema in a woman in the very beginning of her pregnancy, and a so-called book club that seems to meet daily and assign a new book every single week but with the members VERY rarely actually seen reading or discussing the books at book club. I quite like the cover of this book, but it honestly has very little to do with the story.

There are two timelines in this book, with the bulk of the story unfolding in 1942, and only 3 chapters happening in 2016. In the latter, a character is mourning the death of her mother but declines her provider’s suggestion of antidepressants, with the implication that it would make her just forget her lost loved one. There is a lot of love for L.A. in these sections, with some random mentions of Theresa Caputo and Tori Spelling, and the implication that any other city that doesn’t demand its women be blonde therefore has “relaxed beauty standards”. The potential love interest in this part of the story seems completely unnecessary.

There is mention of a swastika design within the bricks of a house and how this suggests it is the home of Nazis, but there are plenty of homes in the U.S. with this design built into the brick pattern as it predates the symbol’s eventual association with the Nazi party.

But taken as a WWII story about the women living on Martha’s Vineyard while the men are shipped out, during U.S. military training exercises on their shores, with a bit of intrigue and family saga as well, this book worked pretty well.

Book Review: THE LISTENERS by Maggie Stiefvater

| Jessica Crawford

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater is a 400 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Viking.

Genre:

Historical Fiction, Magical Realism

Synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Opening Line:

The day the hotel changed forever began as any other.

My Thoughts:

Belief was contagious. When you believed in one intangible thing, why not a second, why not a third. If God, then why not the listeners in the water, if the listeners in the water, why not ghosts, if ghosts, why not unicorns–

Maggie Stiefvater’s adult debut is a large heaping of historical fiction with a dash of magical realism that evokes an invigorating sense of place and authentic characters.

The setting is a luxury hotel and spa in the mountains of West Virginia, where the sweetwater from the hot and cold springs is said to have restorative powers. The year is 1942 and the U.S. has recently joined in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor when the State Department and FBI direct that the hotel guests all be checked out so that the hotel can be used to host (read: detain) a few hundred foreign nationals, diplomats and dignitaries from Axis nations. The hope is for diplomatic reciprocity – we treat these people well, and the Americans abroad will be treated well in turn until an exchange can be negotiated. And so the staff of the Avallon find themselves expected to treat the enemy to the heights of luxury.

June Hudson is the general manager of the hotel. Originally from a coal mining town in the mountains and abandoned when her mother couldn’t afford to take care of her during the Great Depression, June began working in housekeeping at the hotel but over the years was taken under the wing of the hotel’s owner and became an honorary member of the Gilfoyle family. She was groomed to take in his role after him because the two share a special ability to commune with the sweetwater. Because it turns out the water under the mountain, tinkling out of fonts all throughout the hotel, is closely tied to its success or failure.

Tucker Rye Minnick (whose name is almost always given in full each time in this book) is an FBI Agent assigned to surveilling the hotel’s new “guests” during their stay. He has a troubled history of his own in Appalachia, and the Germans, Japanese, and Italians in his charge provide him with the opportunity to pull off something that will impress the powers that be enough to save his career.

It was the historical fiction part of this story that worked best for me, plus the setting and characters. (The guest in 411 who hasn’t left her room in years! The neurodivergent child tasked with memorizing a coded message!) I was all in with these parts of the book, and they alone would have earned 5 stars from me.

What I didn’t love was the romance, which seemed completely unnecessary to me, and the fact that I never felt like the question of the sweetwater was fully answered to my satisfaction. In a system of quarter stars, these things bring my final rating down to a still commendable 4.75 stars.