A sexy, splashy love story with sweet depths.
In Dodd’s romance novel, a commitment-wary mermaid performer and a real estate developer with a rakish reputation meet in Vegas and then fake a relationship to aid their careers.
After hauling a bulky suitcase off the carousel at the Las Vegas airport, 32-year-old redhead Coral Triton barrels into 39-year-old “blond Adonis” businessman Jameson “Jamie” Standard, who’s heading toward his limo driver. The couple banter, and as she walks off, a huge bottle of personal lubricant falls out of her suitcase; Coral, who regularly dons a mermaid costume, notes that it’s “crucial for that tight tail squeeze.” This flirtatious meet-cute is conveyed in alternating “Coral” and “Jamie” point-of-view chapters, as is the rest of the novel. The couple are both staying at the L’Atelier hotel; they meet again there and have a one-night stand that Coral labels “amazing” in a note she leaves behind. However, the narrative has already tipped readers off that Coral and Jamie are destined for further encounters: She’s been hired by the L’Atelier’s manager to perform in and help craft an aquarium show, and he’s a Boston-based real estate developer visiting his sister Jocelyn, who’s coincidentally Coral’s new boss. He’s there to wait out the reaction to a recently published “Modern Day Rakes” article in Boston Commons magazine, which features him and could jeopardize his deal with an upright Boston Brahmin client. While in costume, Coral interacts with bedazzled observer Jamie, and the resulting social media buzz gives Jocelyn the idea that they should pretend to have a relationship to publicize the hotel and improve Jamie’s image.
Dodd showcases plenty of hot lovemaking sequences in this second novel in a series about bachelors from a Boston-based real estate development firm. Jamie’s impressive pleasure-her-first gymnastics are particularly celebrated, with Coral marveling at one point at how he’s “the man who’d pulled some sort of ninja sex move to land on his knees while staying between mine.” The novel also effectively highlights the role that social media plays in modern life. Coral naturally leverages it to promote her made-for-Instagram career, and the slightly older, less social media–inclined Jamie is initially rather bemused to find himself tagged as “#brunchdaddy” and “#PrinceEricOnTheProwl.” He stars in his own YouTube video near the end of the novel in what turns out to be his best move of all. Dodd gives this novel’s attractive couple plenty of appealing emotional dimension. Jamie realizes that the “moment [he’d] started wondering how to be a better man, [he] met a woman who wasn’t the least bit interested in changing [his] ways.” Coral’s skittishness regarding relationships is effectively detailed and dramatized as being the result of a difficult childhood; the novel even includes a memorable detour to visit Coral’s mother, a boyfriend-obsessed woman who can’t seem to resist disparaging her daughter. Although the novel has many surface charms—including riffs on professional mermaid travails, such as dealing with weird fans called “merverts”—romance fans will relish the substantive adult relationship that forms between the two undeniably appealing main characters.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798986288086
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Sugar Beaver Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.
A heartbroken man lusts after his therapist while seeking revenge on a drug kingpin and his enforcer.
Mitch Haskell’s wife, Angela, died two years ago of an apparent suicide, but Mitch has always believed the scene was staged. Certainly, she would never have willingly left their young son, Andrew, behind. Consumed with a thirst for vengeance, Mitch—a former Marine and undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and currently a police detective—is struggling with alcohol dependency and uncontrolled rage. Andrew is living with his in-laws, who are making not-so-subtle suggestions that they might apply for permanent guardianship if Mitch can’t get it together. So his boss and best friend, John Bowie, mandates that he go into therapy, which puts him in the path of sexy Dr. Dylan Reede. Within a few days, Mitch makes a connection between two new murders and the death of his former partner; finds a big clue that points to the truth about Angela’s death; goes undercover as a homeless man; takes on a vicious drug cartel; and obnoxiously bullies Dylan with a charm offensive that leads them inevitably to bed. While Mitch seems to lean into the stereotype of the ex-soldier/cop with deeply buried trauma who believes that the ends justify the means—at least in law enforcement—Dylan offers the strength and sweetness to help him start breaking down his walls, allowing herself to be vulnerable in turn. Is passionate sex enough to ground a relationship and a family for the long term? For these characters, and the breakneck speed of this thriller, it’s as good a foundation as any.
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781538743027
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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.
