A rare miss from Liese.
A friendship that began with a lie about being ex-lovers is put to the test during a vacation.
Two years ago and newly divorced from their spouses, Thea Meyer and Alex Bruscato told a lie that would change the course of their lives. When they bumped into each other on the stoop of Thea’s former home and discovered their exes were dating, they quickly concocted a story that they’d been first-loves who were serendipitously reunited. Thea and Alex assumed their white lie would be short-lived; their exes’ fling might only last a week. But it’s been two years and the foursome are still very much intertwined. Alex co-parents his 6-year-old daughter, Mia, with ex-wife Jen, who’s still dating Thea’s ex-husband, Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan and Thea do their best to share custody of their dog, Argos. Since that fateful morning, Alex and Thea have become best friends, playing off their fake romantic history only when around their former spouses. When the two of them are invited on a two-week vacation with Jen and Ethan, with Mia and Argos in tow, they agree to tag along, but relaxing on the beach becomes the perfect catalyst as Thea and Alex realize their yearslong friendship has blurred into something more. The narrative jumps back and forth between the early days of their friendship and the countdown to their vacation: and two years is a long time to maintain a lie. Present-day Thea and Alex make a much more compelling duo, with plenty of banter and yearning as they begin to realize and confront their feelings; jumping back to their past selves is always a disappointment. Ethan and Jen are an unlikable supporting cast whose poor first impressions are never fully salvaged. Expect some soreness from all the aggravated jaw-clenching any time they’re on the page.
A rare miss from Liese.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781668205471
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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 cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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