A thoughtfully crafted tale that will leave romance fans looking forward to more from this promising author.
Debut author Bryann’s romance tells the story of a love affair between a wealthy businessman and an artist.
Billionaire Derek Landino is dashing and seductive, drives the best cars, and goes out with beautiful women. But the prince of the Latin European microstate of Calina is much more than the playboy he appears to be. He’s also an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and patron of the arts who’s seeking his life’s purpose in the United States. He’s sworn off falling in love in the aftermath of his divorce, but then he meets Christine Dayne, an unconventional painter and art director at the University of North Carolina. He’s stunned by her beauty, but her integrity and her gift for expressing emotion in her paintings are what steal his heart. Their whirlwind romance takes the tabloids by storm, and Courtney Metcalf, a woman from Derek’s past, seeks to break the couple’s bond by framing Derek for an act of infidelity. In this steamy and exciting romance, Bryann offers a riff on “Cinderella” that hits all the right notes for fans of contemporary romance: a chiseled billionaire who’s quickly revealed to be a real-life prince; a strong, capable heroine; and appealing supporting characters, such as Derek’s pal Timothy McKenzie and Christine’s best friend, April, who get their own satisfying endings. Bryann’s inclusion of Christine’s skill at portraying feelings in her art is a masterful touch that offers insight into the character’s emotional evolution and identifies those who can see her true potential.
A thoughtfully crafted tale that will leave romance fans looking forward to more from this promising author.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64-990212-2
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Rowell delivers the requisite happily-ever-after, but it doesn’t quite satisfy.
A second-chance romance from the author of Slow Dance (2024) and the Simon Snow Trilogy.
Cherry is fat. There are other things to know about Cherry, but this fact is essential to how she sees herself and—she knows—essential to how other people see her. And now that her husband’s hugely popular webcomic is a movie, she not only has to endure people confusing her with the character that’s based on her, but also the knowledge that the actor playing this character is wearing a fat suit. This pain is exacerbated by the fact that her marriage is over. It’s at this rock-bottom moment that her college crush reenters her life…This is a book about being fat, and Rowell does a great job of depicting what internalized fatphobia looks like. “Cherry was so used to thinking about being fat, she hardly even noticed that she was doing it. She was so used to thinking about being fat, she never thought about it.” Observations like this will resonate with a lot of readers, as will Cherry’s complicated feelings about weight-loss drugs. This is also a romance and, as a romance, it’s kind of all over the place. It’s totally realistic for Cherry to wonder if Russ—the guy from college—never pursued her because of her weight. This is a conflict that feels true. What’s less believable is the way he reacts when he sees a trailer for Cherry’s husband’s movie. It’s clear that he didn’t get that this movie was going to be a blockbuster. In short, Russ freaks out, and it’s not at all clear why. As for Cherry’s husband, the way she feels about him at the beginning of the book is totally disconnected from the way she feels about him in the novel’s latter half. It’s normal to have complicated feelings about the end of a marriage, of course, but there’s no emotional throughline to help the reader understand why Cherry’s feelings change so dramatically.
Rowell delivers the requisite happily-ever-after, but it doesn’t quite satisfy.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780063380264
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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