An entertaining summer Regency romance filled with yearning and antics.
Their lies bring them together, but their connection is all too true.
Lady Ruby Ballimore hasn’t actually done anything wrong—just embarrassed a friend of her father’s—but she’s desperate to flee the judgment of London society. An opportunity presents itself in Cornwall, in the form of Pomeroy House, a country estate that ostensibly belongs to Princess Serafina of Monfalcone but has never been occupied by her. Ruby’s two best friends agree to pretend they are all the princess’ ladies-in-waiting and set out on a summer adventure—but when they arrive at Pomeroy, they discover the house is occupied by a very odd staff whose housekeeping is chaotic at best. This motley crew is led by the handsome Malcolm Archer, and the unkempt house reflects the fact that they are actually sailors-turned-smugglers who use it as a base for trading illegal ostrich feathers, cigars, and whatever else they can bring across the English Channel. So, though none of them should be there, both groups uneasily coexist and attempt to preserve their false identities. Despite the many lies that both keep telling, Malcolm and Ruby can’t resist their growing attraction. But just as the pair (and both groups) start to get more comfortable with each other, Princess Serafina’s majordomo arrives, and then things truly go around the bend. Vasti’s newest series gets off to a rollicking start with a story enlivened not only by Malcolm and Ruby, but also the found families that surround them. Ruby’s bluestocking tendencies and Malcolm’s dubious creativity as a pirate make for two strong characters, and it’s a pleasure to see an attraction slowly develop between them, described with Vasti’s signature blend of steam and silliness. At times, the zany plot and the extended, almost theatrical cast distract from the central love story, but this may be fine with readers who want to start predicting which characters will feature in future volumes.
An entertaining summer Regency romance filled with yearning and antics.Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414250
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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