A lively romance that lacks fully developed characters.
A high school graduate learns harsh truths about her family and her first love in this debut novel.
Eighteen years old and ready to break free of her small Colorado town of Nederland, bookish aspiring physician Seryna lets loose at a party late in her senior year. She is nearly raped by her platonic friend Rutty until a handsome and mysterious stranger rescues her, then vanishes without a trace. Seryna loses her virginity to him at another party before learning his name, Kieran, and why he’s conveniently there every time she’s in trouble. A physics student–turned–FBI agent, 25-year-old Kieran is investigating certain residents of Nederland—including Seryna’s father and estranged older brother—for their part in manufacturing and distributing Grandma’s Apple Pie, a flavorful moonshine that may be laced with ingredients that lead its partakers to dangerous acts. Immediately smitten with the attractive older man, Seryna is eager to sleep with Kieran again and the two begin a courtship full of fancy dinners, elegant hotels, and kinky sex, all of which open her eyes to a different way of life. As the date of her first day of college in Boulder grows closer and Kieran makes major progress in his investigation, Seryna’s best friend, Alex, is the victim of a tragic car accident and the protagonist edges closer to mortal danger. Larsen intends to continue Seryna’s story: The novel ends with a startling cliffhanger. The author delivers a solid concept for a romance and plenty of action. But Seryna sometimes appears less like a real teenager and more like an adult woman who occasionally goes to high school parties. Though at 18 she’s of legal age, her relationship with a 25-year-old man who’s far more experienced in sex and life is disturbing rather than sensual. No one seems to question why a young woman who’s only recently had her first drink almost immediately wants to marry her new boyfriend. Additionally, the first love and small-town crime plots don’t mesh well, resulting in alternating chapters that feel as if they’re from two different books instead of a single, cohesive story.
A lively romance that lacks fully developed characters.Pub Date: May 27, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 319
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2020
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 fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.
While on her sister’s wedding cruise, a woman enlists her childhood best friend for help as she attempts to woo her longtime crush.
JoJo Burton is bad at love. After she leaves her terrible fiancé, Pearce Richmond, at the altar, she’s convinced she might never settle down. But during her sister’s wedding, which is being held on an eight-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cozumel, she and her family concoct a plan that will help her seduce her recently divorced childhood crush, Finn Turner. The two of them once shared a blindfolded kiss that might have ruined JoJo for all other men, and she’s never forgotten it. But then JoJo’s best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up. Cooper and JoJo were inseparable as children but didn’t talk for years after she got engaged to Pearce. She doesn’t know why he suddenly disappeared on her, but it doesn’t matter—he’s here now, and she needs him to help her get Finn to reenact that long-ago kiss. But after she and Cooper share a cabin, get thrown together for every wedding week activity, and even engage in the classic friendly flirting meant to make another man jealous, JoJo starts to realize that Finn might not be the man she’s been waiting for, after all. Center keeps things light, focusing on humor even when the subject matter veers into family drama. JoJo and Cooper find themselves caught up in the sort of tropes that are catnip for romance fans—he takes care of her when she has a sunburn, for instance, and they participate in a slow-dance contest. As Center reveals in an author’s note at the beginning, “Spoiler: This book will end well.” The destination may not be a surprise, but the journey is a delight.
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781250408051
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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