A fizzy romp best read while draped in a toga, cosmo in hand.
Four goddesses struggle with irrelevance in the modern world in Bardot’s light supernatural romance.
Goddesses the world over are employed by Shee, the all-knowing CEO of a company called FEM (which stands for Female Energy Macrocosm). FEM is downsizing and eliminating the positions of some goddesses who are no longer worshipped or acknowledged. Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory and history and mother to the nine Muses, didn’t expect to be one of them. Nor is she prepared for the additional penalty—she’s no longer immortal and will age like everyone else. Now that she has to find a new job, she wonders if her sexy boyfriend, Sen. Miguel Flores of California, will still find her interesting. What will she talk to her daughters about? Mnem isn’t alone, however. Shee has also fired Inna, the Nigerian goddess of bounty; Axtis, the Persian goddess of peace; and Phra Naret, the Thai goddess of good fortune. Can this newly mortal quartet move from superficial perfection to real-life relationships? Will they be able to find love, open a business, and maybe foil some art forgers in the process? Bardot presents a tale in which Clash of the Titans meets Sex and the City. The romance and sex in this frothy novel occur in a modern world where the Covid-19 pandemic never happened and financial woes that come with actual job loss are merely glossed over. However, its critique of social media is timely and deepens the story, as does the concept of the women’s startup, Goddesses Inc., an online store devoted to ethically sourced goods. The main characters here, while sometimes overly needy, aren’t emotionally stagnant, and their decisions—to expose a crime, among other things—all make clear sense. Although the conclusion is oddly rushed, it still packs a punch.
A fizzy romp best read while draped in a toga, cosmo in hand.Pub Date: March 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73408-971-4
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Flores Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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