A wonderful cast is squandered by a downright antagonistic romance.
A queer debut rom-com in which a magazine's sex-advice columnist and the woman in charge of cutting costs frequently butt heads and fight their attraction.
Liz Baker works as a relationship and sex-advice columnist for Nether Fields, “a magazine for queer women, nonbinary people, and trans people,” but receives the bittersweet news that the publication is being shut down. She's sad to see Nether Fields close, though the severance money will allow her to keep writing full time. Then the magazine is saved at the eleventh hour, purchased by Manhattan real estate agent Bailey Cox and her more cutthroat business partner, Daria Fitzgerald. Though Bailey is a fan of the magazine and wants to see it succeed, Daria is more concerned with finding expenses to cut. Liz's first impression of Daria is a bad one—she overhears Daria insulting the magazine to Bailey, specifically mentioning some of Liz's articles. Things only gets worse as Daria slashes popular office perks. On the other hand, Liz is powerfully attracted to Daria, though Daria treads (and often fails to tread) the line between curt and mean. The power balance between them is also a problem, especially as Daria makes it clear that Liz will be the first to go once departments start downsizing. The romance is slow to develop, as Daria's and Liz's snap judgments about each other often stunt meaningful conversations. They eventually get there, realizing how wrong their initial assumptions were, but readers may tap out well before then. The supportive and diverse queer community that serves as the backdrop to the romance is the most compelling thing about this book. While the insertion of queer celebrities and pop culture into the narrative quickly identifies the characters as being very much plugged into online spaces and media, it winds up overloading the romance. Where the relationship falters, though, the setting of Nether Fields and its devoted staff shines.
A wonderful cast is squandered by a downright antagonistic romance.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593594704
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
