Questions of race, class, and sexism test the possibility of a happy-ever-after in this interracial romance.
A curvy businesswoman running a boudoir-photography studio must collaborate with a male rival for an unexpected project in this debut romance.
When her pregnant best friend, who’s launching a size-inclusive collection of lingerie for a larger brand, proposes that Black photographer Cassie Harris pose for the ad campaign instead of taking the pictures, she’s leery, especially if it means being photographed by the White male competitor who often edges her out for jobs. Reid Montgomery has skill, but he’s used to skating by on his charm and doing what clients expect, mimicking his personal life of casual ties courtesy of emotionally uninvolved parents and a ne’er-do-well sibling. The lucrative offer to feature Cassie in a lingerie shoot in which she’d get art director credit while Reid secretly ensures the parent company’s traditional vision offers a tempting opportunity for both of them. Despite their attraction, Cassie is wary of sharing top billing with someone who’s been in the way of her success before, while Reid worries about his secret deal with the lingerie company executives—and its inevitable revelation threatens to split apart their budding relationship, professional and erotic. Set in Chicago, which functions as a romantic backdrop to location-hunting and photo shoots, and with a multiracial and queer supporting cast, this debut has a lot of promise. Cassie’s background as the artistic child of high-achieving and wealthy parents challenges racial stereotypes, as does Reid’s history of being a popular photographer from a dysfunctional home who’s slow to recognize his racial privilege. The infodumping about their lives and the heavy-handedness of Cassie’s having to explain why it’s hard to be a Black entrepreneur and artist are balanced out by scenes of sexual chemistry between the leads and affection between Cassie and her circle of friends and co-workers. While the crisis precipitated by Reid's hidden agenda is telegraphed almost from the start, it’s a structural weakness that is resolved effectively by his eventual big gesture.
Questions of race, class, and sexism test the possibility of a happy-ever-after in this interracial romance.Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-43733-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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
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