A steamy rom-com that doesn’t sell all of its elements successfully.
A kindergarten teacher finds herself falling for the parent of one of her students as they team up to take down a sketchy company.
Emerson Pierce loves her job as a kindergarten teacher, up to and including everything except her salary. Desperate for the opportunity to make more money—and to connect with other women her own age—she throws herself into becoming a salesperson for skincare company Petunia Lemon after being recruited by a co-worker. All she has to do is invest some of her savings first, and she’ll make all that money back tenfold in no time. If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is; investigative reporter Lucas Miller has been sniffing around Petunia Lemon and their borderline-illegal activity ever since his ex-wife got suckered into their act. He has every intention of writing an article to expose the company, and sneaking into their convention at a local hotel seems like the perfect way to do it. When Emerson and Lucas lock eyes on each other at the rooftop bar, it’s lust at first sight, and a steamy hookup soon follows. Emerson expects to leave her one-night stand behind as soon as she and Lucas part ways, but the beginning of a new school year has a surprise in store for her: He’s the father of one of her students. Emerson wants to keep things professional, but when she starts catching on to Petunia Lemon’s more sinister underbelly, she reaches out to Lucas in a moment of desperation. Now, the two of them have to team up in order to reveal the company’s dirty dealings, all while fighting the attraction between them that has never truly dissipated. Martin’s latest delivers all of her signature humor, but the plot struggles to strike a balance between sizzling romance and the takedown of a predatory pyramid scheme. Still, Emerson and Lucas’ chemistry, which builds within the background of their reluctant investigative work, as well as Emerson’s strengthening relationship with Lucas’ endearing daughter, is the book’s best component.
A steamy rom-com that doesn’t sell all of its elements successfully.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780593816356
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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
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