That Night on Thistle Lane

December 10, 2012
In the pleasant but bland second contemporary in the Swift River Valley series (after Secrets of the Lost Summer), smalltown librarian Phoebe O’Dunn allows herself to find love. After being jilted, Phoebe closed her heart off to romance, and opened it instead to the needs of her friends and family. When she secretly participates in a masked ball wearing a gown she unearths in the library’s hidden attic, she is inexplicably drawn to a swashbuckling swordsman who sweeps her off her feet and unintentionally involves her in a mystery. Soon Phoebe discovers that her dance partner was Noah Kendrick, billionaire friend of her best friend Olivia’s fiancé, and she backs off—but Noah recognizes her and hopes to reconnect with her. This slow-paced romance uses an overabundance of cliché and unvoiced thoughts to replace meaningful dialogue, and the mysteries are entirely overblown. Even Neggers’s many fans will find this lackluster yarn disappointing.

February 15, 2013

When cautious, responsible librarian Phoebe O'Dunn gives in to a whim and goes incognito in a vintage Edwardian gown to a charity costume ball, her well-ordered life is turned upside down by an unknown swashbuckling swordsman. And wealthy California-based Noah Kendrick can't forget his elusive "princess." When he ends up staying in Knights Bridge to dog-sit for an old friend, it's only a matter of time before Noah and Phoebe reconnect--and must decide what to do about the sparks that still arc between them. VERDICT This enchanting Cinderella story brings a diverse pair together and solves a few mysteries along the way. With charm and a spot-on sense of time and place, Neggers returns fans to her idyllic Knights Bridge with a story that reprises a number of familiar characters and adds depth to the town's history. Neggers (Secrets of the Lost Summer) lives in Vermont.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
Neggers continues her small-town romance series (Secrets of the Lost Summer, 2012) with the story of librarian Phoebe O'Dunn. After she discovers a secret roomful of costumes in the attic of the library, Phoebe decides to join her friends at a masquerade ball, but without telling anyone. She meets and falls for masked swashbuckler Noah, but flees after she overhears others talking about him. Noah's best friend, Dylan, is marrying Phoebe's friend Olivia, and soon the two discover each other's identities. But Noah is wealthy and famous, and dealing with a mysterious follower. Phoebe resists change and fears attachment. Both major and minor characters are fun and well developed here. While the pace is different from Neggers' romantic-suspense titles, many readers will enjoy the warm atmosphere and sweet romance. The mystery of the costumes in the library is slowly uncovered, but the love story is the main event. Fans of Debbie Macomber will enjoy Neggers' latest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)