A secret romance novelist and a faking-dating plot will hit the spot for most readers.
A former Canadian special forces cinnamon-roll hero helps a writer find her own happy ending.
Andi Zeigler is the personal assistant to the Canadian prime minister’s wife, but her real love is writing romance novels—which she’s been doing under a pen name. The only person she confided in was a stranger with whom she had an embarrassing encounter a few years ago—you couldn’t quite call it a one-night-stand because they didn’t end up having sex. Nolan Crosby has returned to Ottawa to help his sister take care of their mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. But he didn’t expect his temporary stint as a bodyguard to Prime Minister Eric Nichols to bring him back to Andi, the funny and sweet woman he met fleetingly three years ago. Just as they start to become (re)acquainted, a media firestorm started by a misleading photo of Andi with PM Nichols erupts; worse, someone discovers one of Andi’s novels, adding fuel to the speculation. Desperate to counter the rumors, Andi asks Nolan to be her fake boyfriend. Inevitably, they catch feelings as they travel with their respective bosses, share one bed, and pose for acquaintances and the media. Lea takes a popular plot device and adds enough individuality to both her characters and the incidents that bring them closer for them to be pleasing. Nolan and Andi’s chemistry, especially as they become lovers, sizzles. These episodes are sometimes interspersed too quickly with ones involving his mother’s health and his unresolved anger over her uneven parenting of him and his sister. Meanwhile, chapters from Andi’s point of view contain one too many passages about how the romance genre gets no respect, which feel heavy-handed. More gumption and less physical and verbal bumbling on her part—a trait that should be phased out in romance—would also have raised this enjoyable novel one tier higher.
A secret romance novelist and a faking-dating plot will hit the spot for most readers.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641781
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
A book about revenge that’s more punishing than purposeful.
A woman from a matriarchal society kidnaps a prince from a neighboring kingdom, planning to force him into marriage.
Five hundred years ago, the wife of the abusive king of Amarra prayed to her goddess for mercy; in return, the goddess granted every woman in the country the ability to rule over men. Amarra’s queens have governed with vengeance ever since, creating a fiercely violent matriarchy. Now, 21-year-old Olerra Corasene, a gifted military strategist and powerful general, is competing with her cunning and devious cousin, Glenaerys, to be the next queen. Since Glen is trying to secure the throne by currying favor with the wealthy nobles, Olerra decides on a different tactic, the time-honored Amarran tradition of kidnapping a husband. Her target is a good-looking younger prince from the neighboring country of Brutus, but she accidentally and unknowingly nabs Sanos, the king’s eldest son and heir to the throne. She drags Sanos back to Amarra, where he’s treated with all the contempt for men that is normal in her society: He’s dressed as a sexual plaything, forced to shave his beard and body hair, leashed and restrained for bad behavior. Olerra can’t understand Sanos’ objections to this treatment, and the ensuing power struggle makes up most of the plot. Marketed as romantasy, Levenseller’s first adult novel falls flat as both romance and fantasy. There is little connection or chemistry between Olerra and Sanos, and since both are more caricature than character, neither experiences the kind of growth that creates challenging or interesting romantic relationships. In addition, the worldbuilding is paper thin. Amarra is a world built on reverse misogyny, but the motifs, imagery, and scenes often read more like a brainstormed list (a penis guillotine!) than a fully realized attempt to say something meaningful about women’s rage.
A book about revenge that’s more punishing than purposeful.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250379375
Page Count: 368
Publisher: FEIWEL
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bailey hits it out of the park with her latest spicy romance.
Two ambitious athletes plus one fake-dating arrangement—what could go wrong?
Though it’s only his first season for the Boston Bearcats hockey team, Robbie Corrigan has a well-established reputation as a playboy. He’s got major skills on the ice, and he’s also much more likely to love ’em and leave ’em than he is to build any long, meaningful relationships. Naturally, he’s just met the one woman who seems completely resistant to his charm: Skylar Page, a Boston University softball pitcher. When they meet over a friendly Saturday morning baseball game, Robbie instantly makes a poor impression by bragging to his teammates about his latest conquest within Skylar’s hearing. He thinks she’s gorgeous, though, and when he sets his sights on her, he’s surprised that she doesn’t seem to know it. Despite her initial distaste for Robbie, Skylar grudgingly confesses that she could use his help. If they pretend to date, maybe her current crush—her brother’s best friend—will finally sit up and take notice of her in a romantic way. The timing is less than ideal, since Robbie will have to team up with Skylar in the Page family’s latest wilderness competition, but it turns out that Robbie’s willingness to play fake boyfriend stems from some very real feelings. He wants to prove to her that he’s a changed man, and redeeming himself in her eyes starts with making sure she knows that she can really trust him. The latest addition to Bailey’s Big Shots series is a sexy, feel-good romance brimming over with the author’s trademark humor and dirty talk. While Skylar and Robbie’s dynamic doesn’t quite reach the level of enemies-to-lovers—he’s so head-over-heels for her that there’s no room for any real mean-spiritedness—their playful snark doubles as a welcome dash of foreplay in the lead-up to some seriously steamy scenes. Robbie’s efforts to show Skylar that he’s turned over a new leaf also result in some of the book’s best moments, emphasizing his commitment to becoming the type of man he knows she deserves.
Bailey hits it out of the park with her latest spicy romance.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780063380837
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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