A convincing tale about the evolution of a friendship and a romance.
Two old college friends get more than they bargained for when they revive a youthful marriage pact in this debut novel about millennial self-discovery.
As Hannah Abbott celebrates her 30th birthday in the office of Deafening Silence New York, the indie music magazine where she works, she is overwhelmed by complex emotions. Social media posts spark nostalgia with pictures of her with college friends Kate Novack and Will Thorne, “three musketeers” navigating the challenges of young adulthood. The mysterious delivery of white carnations stirs her curiosity, as she’s pretty sure her boyfriend, Brian, would have no clue they are her favorite. Overlying everything is a vague but constant sense of dissatisfaction that interferes with her sense of accomplishment. She loves her job, but it offers no medical benefits to help her deal with a worrying knee injury. Her relationship with Brian feels distant and unfulfilling, though she can’t put her finger on exactly why. Into this emotional turmoil comes Will, returning to Hannah’s life to make good on a pact the two best friends made in college to marry each other if neither had found a mate by the age of 30. Will’s life is also in free fall, triggered by the discovery that his girlfriend, Madison, was cheating on him with his older brother, Jon. Diving into a rabbit hole of depression and alcohol has not improved Will’s position at the family firm, run with an iron hand by his father, Jonathan. Marriage to each other could provide both Hannah and Will with the stability they need, but will it strengthen or destroy their friendship? Writing within a sometimes-formulaic genre, Dembowski has created genuinely appealing characters in Hannah and Will, and she succeeds in making their unusual relationship journey absorbing and satisfying. She has a sure hand with millennial vernacular, including texting and the ever present social media, as in Hannah’s sister’s succinct text response to the protagonist’s announcement of her sudden marriage: “Ruh-roh—preggo?” If some of the obstacles to romance seem a bit forced (Hannah’s obliviousness to Will’s discomfort around Madison and Jon is hard to believe), the novel’s grounding in its era never is.
A convincing tale about the evolution of a friendship and a romance.Pub Date: April 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-94-805168-2
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© 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.
