A sexy, satisfying romance about people who finally grow into being right for each other.
Childhood best friends have a second chance at love.
Oppressed by the weight of family expectations after his high school graduation, Gabriel Aguilar left the Bronx for Los Angeles and never looked back. Thirteen years later, he co-owns a successful gym; he used to love working one-on-one with clients, but he’s bored and unhappy now that his job is nothing but calendar alerts and endless meetings. Gabe’s partner has hired Michelle Amato, a marketing expert, to help them with the gym’s New York expansion, unaware that she was Gabe’s childhood best friend and next-door neighbor. Michelle is excited for the chance to rebrand Agility Gyms but also hopes to finally find out why Gabe abandoned their friendship. Daria excels at writing strong, interesting conflict for her characters. Michelle is determined to protect herself after too many heartbreaks: She was devastated when Gabe moved to LA and was personally and professionally burned in corporate America. Gabe learns that his inability to stand up for himself in business is related to his penchant for running away. Gabe and Michelle know they should be careful with their hearts, but they cannot resist their powerful attraction or shared history, which is detailed on the page through instant messages from their teenage years. Michelle and Gabe battle their inner demons and take a chance on each other, and the result will delight romance readers. Not only is it a satisfying and steamy romance, but the novel also explores how family and friends can be an essential part of a happy, fulfilling life.
A sexy, satisfying romance about people who finally grow into being right for each other.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-295996-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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
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
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