A sublime cast propels this tale of romance, misdeeds, and intrigue.
In this romantic suspense novel, an American university professor finds love and espionage on a Greek island.
Professor Britt Evans is well versed in the subject she loves—ancient Greek culture. She’s set to research the Minoans on Santorini, though she’s most excited to bask on the island’s tranquil beach near the ocean waves. But before she even leaves Athens, where Britt guest lectured, United States Embassy official and intelligence liaison Susan Marcello recruits her as an asset. As a private citizen with a legitimate reason to be there, Britt is a perfect choice for snooping around Santorini, where something is afoot. At least, that’s what the Greek Criminal Investigative Services’ previous asset believed. He only managed to send a cryptic message before falling to his death in an apparent accident. Once on the island, Britt finds herself quickly smitten with professional computer nerd and windsurfer Cassie Burkhardt. While Britt is an open lesbian, Cassie has only dated men. But that does nothing to dampen the attraction that both women clearly feel. Meanwhile, Britt keeps her eyes peeled for anything suspicious, which there seems to be a lot of on Santorini. Artifacts, for example, have gone missing from a local excavation site as well as the museum. Plus, there’s no shortage of thuggish types, who turn even more dubious once Britt realizes they’re armed. When she’s nearly hit by a truck and later a bullet, Britt knows without a doubt someone has targeted her. But now Cassie, this wonderful woman she’s fallen for, is in danger as well.
Bohan’s novel amasses a laudable female cast. The highlighted romance enthralls; as with any good love story, there are hurdles. In one scene, Britt stews at a nightclub filled with straight couples while she watches men flock to Cassie. Along with the blooming couple and Susan, there’s Britt’s friend Nicki Lampas, who has a none-too-subtle and unrequited interest in Britt. They’re all capable women intellectually and physically, traits that prove necessities all the way to the tense final act. Other characters spark subplots (for instance, there’s trouble with someone’s forthcoming wedding) that occasionally tie to the sketchy island affairs that Britt looks into. Regardless, the book’s mystery is nominal; Britt hardly investigates, as she stumbles on evidence and draws conclusions based on information she’s picked up by happenstance. In addition, the criminals are pretty dense and don’t stand much of a chance against the witty and tenacious professor. Still, these villains are unquestionable menaces. The narrative reveals one baddie to readers early on, but others are less obvious, making a number of untrustworthy characters potential threats against Britt and Cassie. Bohan permeates this tale with suspense courtesy of sharp, sometimes ominous prose. For example, Britt, having just arrived on the island, claims “a coffin-sized rectangle on a patch of black sand” at the beach. Later, certain that someone is following her and Cassie, she speeds a car “around the curves of the snaking road.”
A sublime cast propels this tale of romance, misdeeds, and intrigue.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 256
Publisher: NanBec Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A smart, steamy romance.
Tomforde’s sports romance pairs boardroom power plays with dugout drama.
As the youngest and only female owner of a Major League Baseball team, Reese Remington is used to pressure. Even though Reese is the granddaughter of the Windy City Warriors’ former owner, the men around her still question her position; she’ll “most likely have to work twice as hard and make [the] club’s success twice as noticeable to have any hope of being viewed as the right person to operate this team.” It doesn’t help that the franchise is bleeding money, the result of her grandfather’s hands-off approach in the years before his retirement. Reese must use her razor-sharp intelligence and fierce business sense to not only prove herself in a role in which the public is eager to see her fail, but also to make unpopular financial decisions to get the team out of the red. Enter Emmett Montgomery, a former All-Star turned field manager whose priorities lie firmly with people rather than profit. A man devoted to his team and his adopted child, Emmett has long since closed the door on romance, despite gentle nudging from his loved ones. His empathetic team-first mentality puts him immediately at odds with Reese’s pragmatic agenda, and with his contract up at the end of the year, Emmett worries he’ll be on the chopping block if he speaks out too much. Told from the perspectives of the leads, the novel gives equal page time to Reese and Emmett. Their concerns––the scrutiny Reese must endure as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and Emmett’s worries over his contract renewal––are tangible and add a sense of urgency to their every decision. While the novel includes some unavoidable exposition dumps to orient readers, it more than compensates by establishing clear stakes and a sense of momentum from the outset. The narrative successfully introduces credible barriers to the romance, which largely follows recognizable genre beats. The baseball setting is also used effectively, with the season-long arc mirroring the couple’s romantic and professional journeys.
A smart, steamy romance.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781649379795
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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