An emotion-filled, magic-tinged romance for dreamy types.
Two high schoolers meet in the dreamworld.
Seventeen-year-old Aria Lendell has always been a hopeless romantic and inveterate daydreamer. But ever since something terrible happened to her identical twin, Cady, her imagination has lost its spark. Aria suddenly starts having lucid dreams at midnight; the fantastical settings offer a reprieve from reality. She shares the dreamworld with Strat Madigan, who attends St. Swithun’s, a boys’ prep school in nearby Sacramento. The white-presenting pair’s encounters at midnight, in daydreams, and in real life lead to the return of memories, complicating things even more. Aria and Strat realize they must have gotten memory erasures from Aracen Exradere. While this elective surgery is common for adults, it’s permitted for minors only in exceptional circumstances. Why and how did Aria and Strat erase each other—especially when their memories are the stuff of fairy tales? And why is the normally surefire ArEx procedure failing? As they piece together the puzzle, they confront the old and present versions of themselves. Using vividly descriptive prose, Bourne explores relationships, particularly the gaps between expectation and reality. Both leads have frequently capitulated to what others needed them to be at the expense of their real selves. Now that they have a second chance at love, they learn to embrace truth in all its messiness and manage relationships new and old, romantic and familial. The plot unravels slowly, with allusions and teases, but the story maintains a fast pace.
An emotion-filled, magic-tinged romance for dreamy types. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: June 30, 2026
ISBN: 9798217225552
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans.
Romantic complications between a trained killer and one of her captors drive this sequel to Watch Me (2025).
Appealing to readers who prefer their romantic dramas to be light on action and heavy on long passages of banter, bitter sibling arguments, and tortured reflections, Mafi continues the tale of Rosabelle Wolff, the flaxen-haired assassin from the dystopic Reestablishment, and magnetic, “impossibly stunning” James Anderson, her nemesis-turned-lover who’s still trying to take down the regime. Now desperate to accomplish several secret missions, Rosa easily escapes from one of The New Republic’s prisons, where she was left in the series opener, and, dressed in “a little kid’s cat onesie,” eludes all pursuers except for James, who can seemingly find her at will. Enigmatic Rosa responds unpredictably to many human contacts—including with violence, temporary death (one of her abilities), or a sudden panic attack. Along with the central pair of rivals and lovers, James’ older brother, Aaron, shares the narration. Bestseller Mafi tucks in several subplots, including, notably, a cameo from Juliette Ferrars, the protagonist of the original Shatter Me series, who’s undergoing a scarily difficult pregnancy. Amid the slowly simmering rising action, the author delivers a revelation and a twist that set up a potential series climax. Some ethnic diversity is present in the supporting cast.
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans. (Dystopian. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063419056
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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