A delightful and witty sequel.
New York’s most fashionable amateur sleuth returns to solve another murder.
What are the odds that Pomona Afton, heiress and tabloid royalty, would find herself embroiled in a second murder mystery? Apparently, very high! A year after discovering her grandmother slain by a stiletto pump, Pomona has ditched her clubbing lifestyle for a biopic-worthy philanthropic journey culminating in her very first charity gala. Hoping to gather donations for her nonprofit, which provides scholarships to disadvantaged students, Pomona has invited only the most generous—and glamorous—guests to her event at the New York Public Library. The night sours, however, when Pomona’s primary donor, Conrad Phlume, is found pushed over a second-story railing and impaled on a peacock statue. It turns out that Phlume wasn’t well liked, with enemies including his wife, Bibi, and Pomona’s own parents, along with several gala attendees who had reason to want the real estate developer dead. The press is having a field day with Pomona's connection to another high-profile murder; to make matters worse, Pomona’s best friend, Vienna, is the prime suspect. What's a girl to do but put on her detective fedora—courtesy of Pomona’s boyfriend, Gabe—and start sleuthing? As Pomona’s investigation ramps up, taking her to an art gallery in an abandoned warehouse, a private island, and, terrifyingly, Queens, her newfound maturity and relationship with Gabe hang in the balance. Can Pomona solve Conrad’s murder without risking everything she cares about? The second Pomona Afton novel from Rose (aka author Amanda Elliot) is a charming combo of wonderful and wacky. Pomona is an entertaining protagonist resembling Alexis Rose from Schitt’s Creek, and the mystery only adds to the fun. With a hint of nuptials to come, readers can only hope for a third star-studded killing to make its way to our shelves.
A delightful and witty sequel.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781668075685
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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