This action-packed romance is a road trip worth taking.
A career con woman teams up with a man who’s hiding the truth about himself to save his missing brother.
Sejal Chaudhary knows her family doesn’t look like anyone else’s. With her mother, the former head of the infamous Cobra crime organization, now behind bars, Sejal’s made every effort to keep her head down—even if she can’t resist fleecing one or two creeps. After ending up on the wrong side of a small con job, she grabs the first handsome stranger she sees as cover. But while Krish Anand is happy to pretend to be Sejal’s boyfriend to scare off her angry mark, their meet-cute is no coincidence. The truth is, Krish needs Sejal more than she needs him; his FBI-agent brother, Avi, has gone missing, and he’s convinced Cobra had something to do with it. Given Sejal’s connection to the organization, she’s Krish’s only hope of finding Avi. After convincing her that he’s the FBI agent, Krish still has to talk Sejal into driving across the country with him. When she realizes that her dangerous ex-boyfriend is hot on her tail, it doesn’t take long for Sejal to agree to Krish’s terms. The road trip that ensues is a whirlwind of rundown motel rooms, junk-food dinners, and shots fired, but every hour that passes is a chance for Sejal and Krish to learn more about each other—and realize that their mutual attraction is giving way to something more. The clock is ticking, though, and Krish is going to have to come clean about who he really is, even if it means losing Sejal forever. Rai’s latest is a delightful blend of romance and suspense that doesn’t sacrifice humor in spooling out its thrills. But as the story races toward its finish, it does become slightly overwhelmed by side characters and the need to resolve multiple narrative threads; the faster pace affords less opportunity to wrap up the main couple’s arc. Overall, though, it’s a fun adventure that delivers an irresistible slow-burn romance.
This action-packed romance is a road trip worth taking.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063119505
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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