Full of drama, fun, and scorching love scenes, this love story is worthy of the silver screen.
A fake relationship between an up-and-coming starlet and a down-on-his-luck actor threatens to turn into something real.
Grey Brooks has been acting since she was a child, but her career isn’t exactly where she wants it to be. Fresh off a campy teen soap and hoping for more, she’s writing a script with her best friend and trying to get cast in a new franchise. When her publicist brings up the idea of starting a fake relationship to get press, she’s skeptical—and then she hears the name of her proposed fake boyfriend. It’s Ethan Atkins, a former heartthrob who fell on hard times after his best friend died in an accident years ago. Ethan turned to alcohol, went through a divorce, got dropped from the big movie he’d been filming, and hasn’t acted since. Their publicist thinks that a few strategic outings could be good for both of them—Ethan could show that he’s more stable, and Grey could get attention for being on the arm of a major star. Ethan isn’t sure about the idea, either, but as soon as he meets Grey, he can’t deny his attraction. The two of them enter into a highly choreographed “relationship,” complete with scheduled paparazzi run-ins, mandatory public dates, and a strict nondisclosure agreement. But what they don’t count on is falling for each other for real, and soon they’re juggling their feelings, their careers, and their pasts. Ethan, in particular, struggles to cope with the loss of his best friend and his relationship with alcohol. Can he overcome his demons, or will his relationship with Grey become just another casualty of his self-destructive behavior? In her debut, Wilder creates an angst-y and compelling love story that feels realistically Hollywood. Grey and Ethan’s chemistry burns through the pages, especially in the numerous steamy scenes. Both actors come across sympathetically as humans who are trying their best to have creative careers they’re proud of. Wilder also populates their world with a cadre of richly drawn side characters, like Grey’s no-nonsense agent and Ethan’s supportive ex-wife.
Full of drama, fun, and scorching love scenes, this love story is worthy of the silver screen.Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35895-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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