When I first met Fiona Reilly in Raven of the Sea, I knew her through the hurt she had caused Michael O’Brien. I was firmly on his side, and I did not expect to find myself hoping for a story of her own.
Then Stacey Reynolds wrote Fio.
This novella fits after Shadow Guardian and before River Angels. It follows Fiona, Michael’s former wife and Timothy Daniels, an American former Marine who has rebuilt his life after a serious injury. They meet at a wedding in Ireland and share a brief, intense romance. Fiona walks away, leaving them both hurt. Three years later, something she has kept from Tim comes to light, and he travels to Dublin to see her.
What interested me most about Fio was being asked to look at someone I thought I already understood.
When you love a character, it is easy to remember the person who hurt them only by what they did. I cared about Michael and Branna, and knowing Fiona’s part in Michael’s past made it difficult to feel warmly towards her. But a person’s worst choices are rarely the whole of their life. Fiona has to live with what she has done, and this story gives her the space to try to do better.
That does not mean the hurt disappears. I would not want it to. Forgiveness means very little if a story asks everyone to forget why it was needed. What moved me was the possibility that Fiona could take responsibility for her past and still hope for a future.
Tim has his own history. He has survived a life-changing injury and made a new life for himself, yet he is lonely. Meeting Fiona allows him to imagine a kind of happiness he had begun to think might pass him by. That made her departure all the more painful. When he returns to Ireland years later, he must decide what to do with the truth he has learned and the feelings that never quite left him.
I liked that this is a story about two people who cannot simply pick up where they left off. Time has passed. Choices have consequences. Whatever they might still feel for one another, there are things they have to face honestly before they can decide what comes next.
The title Fio feels affectionate to me. It invites us nearer to Fiona as a person, beyond the part she played in somebody else’s story. We have followed the O’Briens through their heartbreaks and new beginnings. I found it fitting that this little corner of their world gives someone once on the outside a chance to be seen more clearly.
Mental illness is also part of Fiona’s story. I appreciated being reminded to look at her with compassion, while still recognising that the people around her have feelings and needs of their own. Both things can be true. Caring about why someone is struggling does not require us to pretend their actions caused no pain.
I won’t give away what Tim discovers or how Fiona responds when he comes back. The novella is short enough that those moments are best left for you to read yourself. I will say that Fio made me pause before deciding I knew everything about a character. That is one of the pleasures of a long series: sometimes a person you met briefly opens a door to a whole life you had not imagined.
I began this book remembering Michael’s hurt. I finished it thinking about Fiona and Tim as well, and hoping they could both find a way forward.
It turns out there was more to Fio’s story than I knew.
Until next time, 
Toodle pip, 
Lainey.