The Book Nook Chronicles

Soooo…I accidentally pulled an April Fool’s Day joke on all of you. My husband was on an international work trip at the end of March and as a pregnant lady entering her 35th week, my parents came for a few days to give me some peace of mind.

This lead to a weekend filled with cleaning and quality time and another week of getting us back into the swing of life. Happy belated publication day to Kate Hewitt. Sorry I’m so chaotic.

The The Irish Daughter of New York Review

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3.75 on StoryGraph

Genre: Historical Fiction

Author: Kate Hewitt

Page Count: 363

Publication Date: March 31, 2026

This novel is like if the Gilded Age met Gangs of New York. Maggie, our protagonist, is an optimistic (and naive) woman of 19 who believes New York City will fix all of her and her brother, Danny’s, problems. She is convinced that it will reunite them with their father who left them in Ireland for almost a decade, give them a fresh start from their struggles, and allow them to chase their dreams.

Clearly, no one warned Maggie that the American Dream is a hoax filled with racism, classism, sexism, and more. This girl cannot catch a break, but is unfailingly stubborn in her drive to achieve her dreams. With the help of new friends and some very ballsy moves, Maggie starts to make a name for herself. That is until Danny gets himself, and Maggie, on the wrong side of NYC gang life.

As the first installment of the Maggie O’Halloran series, this novel does a decent job setting up the main characters of the series and getting you invested in their lives. While Maggie’s conscience is overly repetitive at times (honestly, annoyingly so), Katie Hewitt does the time period justice – highlighting two sides of New York history that are complete juxtapositions of each other. Getting a view of both the unforgiving slums and the opulent new-money mansions in the city is a nice change of pace, seeing as most historical fictions I have read in the past set in this time period stay on one side or the other.

While I found the struggles Maggie faces with her brother Danny repetitive throughout the novel (much like her stream of consciousness), I couldn’t help but imagine that this is what Gangs of New York might have been like if Leonardo DiCaprio’s character had an older sister trying to steer him in the right direction. Maggie doesn’t do Danny much justice and kind of hands him off to Brendan O’Donoghue, an Irishman she befriends early on in the novel, but she clearly wants better for him. It’s a complicated relationship as they are both on a wild goose chase trying to find their father while independently trying to find their own ways in New York. As the book progresses, it definitely feels like the two of them are less of a family unit and more of a nuisance to each other.

As I mentioned above, Maggie is extremely driven and unfailingly focus on her own goals throughout. She often seems to overlook all of the help she receives from others throughout the novel, making it seem like they are burdening her with their kindness and like she’ll have to owe them something if she allows them to help. In particular, her treatment of Brendan O’Donoghue grinds my gears. I don’t often side with the male love interests in a novel (girl power or bust), but his character is one that should be celebrated. He’s truly kind and bends over backwards for a woman he barely knows. He also does his best to help keep Danny on the straight and narrow. He is far and beyond my favorite and deserves better than the one-tracked mind that is Maggie O’Halloran. Even as a fellow headstrong woman with goals, I hate seeing good people get strung along and taken advantage of, so justice for Brendan. To avoid ruining more of the novel’s plot, I will leave my rant about all of this at that.

I’m glad I gave this first installation of Katie Hewitt’s newest series a try. I’m intrigued to see if there is more character growth in the next installment of the novel or if some characters are simply stuck in their ways. If you are a fan of historical fiction that focuses on the late 1800s, U.S. immigration, or Irish American culture, I recommend adding this to your TBR.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.