Publishers Weekly
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Lawhon (The Frozen River) recounts the story of Irish folk hero Grace O’Malley in this exhilarating novel. Told in a three-part looping structure, with alternating chapters titled Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch, the narrative shuffles between Grace’s childhood, unhappy marriage, and battlefield triumphs in the Elizabethan era. As a girl, Grace dreams of a life at sea, but her chieftain father, Eóin, bars her from sailing. Eóin foils her love life, too, forcing her at 16, in 1546, to marry the odious Donal O’Flaherty, despite her intense bond with future chieftain Richard Bourke, who writes her a passionate letter after her union with Donal: “I will wait for you.” She has three children with Donal, who physically abuses her. After Donal is killed in 1565 while battling the rival Joyce clan, Grace unexpectedly defends Hen’s Castle, a key holding of her late husband’s clan, against incursions by the Joyces, and she’s finally able to be with Richard and earn the respect of Eóin, who hands over command of his fleet. The clever storytelling style, inspired, according to an author’s note, by the Celtic Trinity Knot, rewards attentive readers, with recurring imagery and motifs forming an increasingly complex portrait of the heroine. This is transportive. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group. (Sept.)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Best-selling Lawhon’s latest novel, following The Frozen River (2023), is an immersive odyssey about legendary Irish pirate Grace O’Malley. Spanning three alternating time lines tagged as Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch, Grace’s story slowly unfolds as readers piece together how she came to lead multiple Irish clans in Elizabethan England, a time when, ironically, women held little power and Ireland faced constant threats from the English. As a child, Grace wanted to command the seas. She longed to sail on her father’s ship, Niamh, and live out her days running barefoot on Clare Island and sailing to Spain. While her father eventually softens his opposition to the very idea of her sailing, she cannot escape her fate as the daughter of a noble house and is soon married to a man she does not respect, let alone love. Grace does her duty and bides her time, until, thanks to her determination, ingenuity, and grit, she is able to amass an impressive fleet of ships along with hundreds of loyal followers, all the while parrying threats from other clans and English governors appointed to rule in Ireland. Through the novel's engaging format, readers not only come to know Grace as the formidable historic leader, but also as an ambitious girl, passionate woman, and fierce mother. HIGH-DEMAND

Library Journal
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Called to the sea from a young age, Grace O'Malley is frustrated by her father's insistence that she marry well and produce heirs rather than follow in his footsteps as a captain and warrior. Her grit and ambition aren't so easily extinguished, however, and being married off to a boorish man is only a small obstacle to be overcome on the way to becoming the notorious, charismatic pirate queen who ruled Irish seas in the late 16th century and who once dared to plead her case before Queen Elizabeth I herself. Experienced historical novelist Lawhon (Code Name Helene; The Frozen River) divides Grace's life into three periods—maiden, mother, and matriarch—and then interweaves those timelines to explore how one woman shaped her own destiny through her courageous choices. The novel's frequent jumps back and forth in time and the large cast of characters (who often have similar names) occasionally make it hard to follow the intricacies of Grace's maneuverings, but Lawhon succeeds in creating a vivid portrait of a larger-than-life figure whose feats of bravery and cunning have become the stuff of legend. VERDICT A well-researched work of feminist historical fiction that focuses on action and agency.—Mara Bandy Fass

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Lawhon retrieves a legendary woman warrior from the mists of 16th-century Irish history. The extraordinary life of Grace O’Malley—Gráinne Ní Mháille, in Irish—overlapped closely with that of Queen Elizabeth I, and one of the high points of Lawhon’s latest historical novel depicts a meeting between the two, both rivals and allies, both sharply aware of their fraught positions as female rulers in a man’s world. Gráinne was the daughter of The O’Malley, chieftain of his clan, and distinguished herself at a young age by such unusual gifts and talents that she was taught the ways of the sea and assumed a constantly contested leadership over her father’s land and people after his death. Lawhon has never written a novel with a straightforward timeline, and her latest is no exception, interweaving episodes from three eras of Gráinne’s life—maiden, mother, and matriarch—so that a chapter where she is 56, for example, is followed by one where she is 8, and then one where she is 24. In her signature personable and informative author’s note, Lawhon suggests that one might reread this 400-plus page book a second time in chronological order and have a totally different experience. Some readers may wish that would have been the experience in the first place, as the braided approach seems to trade narrative momentum and clarity for [fill in the blank if you figure it out]. Confusing time management aside, it’s a thrilling story, and the fun that Lawhon clearly had with scenes of bloody mayhem, storms at sea, treacherous machinations, and low Gaelic dialect (“that feckingeejit,” “thatcunting piece of shite,” and never just Galway, always “fecking Galway”) is contagious. Her pirate queen is brilliant, beautiful, and fearless; her loyal servants are adoring and capab her male foes are sleazy scumbags and detestable boobs—all exactly as it should be. A heroic, exciting, and stormy voya worth weathering the chop. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.