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
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.
Opposites attract when a Grim Reaper clashes with a Guardian Angel in this whimsical paranormal romance.
Darcy Moore is in a bit of a tough spot; she’s a Grim Reaper who’s grown tired of death. When she’s given her next assignment, Darcy decides to go rogue. Rather than reaping, Darcy is determined to save her mark, which only upsets the balance kept by the Department of Hauntings and Spirits. Nothing good comes from a Grim Reaper who’s gone AWOL. Bartender Gabriel Aetos works as a Guardian Angel. He doesn’t take kindly to the fact that a Grim Reaper is slinking around his territory. His role is to protect people, while hers is to usher souls into death. To him, their very natures are at odds and his sudden attraction to Darcy won’t change that. This is very much a grumpy-meets-grumpy romance. Gabriel tries hard to keep Darcy at arm’s length and is open about his mistrust of her. Darcy’s standoffishness, though, is born out of her feelings of isolation and loneliness. Dealing in death has taken an obvious toll on her, and she’s traveling her own introspective path on what it means to be human. Darcy’s fragility is what slowly convinces Gabriel to get close to her, despite the heady yearning he keeps under wraps. However, both view their jobs as central to their existence, for better or worse. While Darcy is actively wondering what it would mean to break free of her Grim Reaper responsibilities, Gabriel has never seemed to ponder being anything other than a Guardian Angel. Borison’s romances—most recently And Now, Back to You (2026)—always strike an emotional chord, with deep-seated conflicts that tap into themes of identity, connection, and grief. This addition is truly the epitome of a Borison romance.
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780063430464
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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