A romance that highlights the complex challenge of transitioning from friends to lovers.
Two women worry that their newfound romance will ruin their yearslong friendship.
Cyndi “Cyn Tha Starr” Thomas is a Houston-based rapper and music producer on the rise. She’s finally experiencing the kind of success that she’s been working for—creatively challenged, hired by influential musicians, and winning Grammys. All that success makes her an attractive hookup partner to the many beautiful women who are part of Houston’s music scene, but it’s Cyn’s best friend, Juleesa Jones, that she can’t stop thinking about. Jucee is a single mom and relative newcomer to the city, but Cyn’s large extended family, including parents, grandparents, and siblings, have welcomed her and her son into the clan. Jucee is in high demand as a dancer at Sanity, the hottest strip club in town. Her son’s father was a friend, and they fell into the easy relationship that made them parents, but it wasn’t true love. This experience makes Jucee wary of the budding attraction she feels toward Cyn, because she knows better than anyone how sex can change a friendship. Jucee and Cyn finally give in to their attraction and spend a gloriously sexy night together, followed by a little bit of panic as they both worry about the long-term impact on their friendship. Higgins’ likable characters are tender and vulnerable as they navigate the transition from friends to lovers, mistrusting themselves and each other. Their miscommunications and mistakes are frustrating but believable. A highlight of the book is the strong, vibrant community of friends and family that gently nudges Cyn and Jucee together, knowing the two are perfect for each other.
A romance that highlights the complex challenge of transitioning from friends to lovers.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781335508218
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Carina Adores
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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 heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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