A witty and queer Regency romance full of fun references for Austen fans.
While competing for the same man, two ladies realize they would rather win each other.
The 1817 Season is in full swing in Bath, and as yet another ball begins, everything is going just as Lady Rosalie (and her mother) have planned. She looks perfect in her gown and has only two friends left to pair off with suitable men. And of course, she’s nearly engaged herself, to future viscount Mr. Dean, even though she feels no real passion for him. So it’s a shock when the Pine family, new in town, are announced at the ball and immediately begin to unravel their plans. Miss Catherine Pine and her mother seem set on snatching Mr. Dean away from Rosalie, and the women are soon circling each other carefully at one social event after another, intensely looking for opportunities to prove their superiority and eventually admitting to being at war. But Rosalie soon realizes that her strong feelings for Catherine actually remind her of how she felt for her first love, Jane, and Catherine starts to admit that what she feels for Rosalie is closer to what she felt during her first kiss with another girl. As their attentions turn away from their competition and toward each other, it’s easy enough for them to find an opportunity to explore their attraction physically. After all, who could object to two women taking tea together alone in a parlor? But though their mutual adoration develops into love, society does not offer any pathways toward the future they dream of sharing, and they struggle to find a path forward together. Alban’s latest Sapphic Regency romance, loosely based on Northanger Abbey, is a sweet and spicy enemies-to-lovers story, enhanced by copious details about life in Regency Bath that will forever influence how readers think about what it means to “take [the] waters” there. Alban’s ability to center the blossoming of a romantic relationship without minimizing the importance of friends and family is on full display here, granting the story an extra measure of complexity that heightens the intense connection between Rosalie and Catherine. Their happily-ever-after is perhaps a little too optimistic given the book’s setting, but readers will likely be too charmed to mind.
A witty and queer Regency romance full of fun references for Austen fans.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780063428775
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
A deep and moving portrayal of first love.
Two college students rekindle their relationship as they unravel the truth behind their breakup.
On the outside, college senior Bennett Reiner has it all. A goalie for Waterfell University’s hockey team, he lives with a group of friends in a luxurious off-campus house. He and his best friend, Rhys Koteskiy, have fathers who are retired hockey legends. But on the inside, he’s falling apart. Struggling with OCD, a shaky friendship with Rhys, and second thoughts about pursuing a future in hockey, the only thing keeping Bennett afloat is also the one thing breaking his heart: Paloma Blake. All dyed-hair and attitude, Paloma has built a bad reputation on the hockey scene since their relationship ended freshman year—but Bennett knows the real P. Underneath her promiscuous facade lies a scared and lonely girl running from a childhood of abuse. When they were together, it seemed like their romance was perfect, until Paloma broke it off without warning. Since then, Bennett has run to Paloma’s side whenever she needed him, whether she was drunk, lonely, or hurting, and now he’s determined to win her back. For Bennett, Paloma is his antidote, the cure for his compulsions; for Paloma, Bennett is her protector, her safe space. And though Paloma yearns to be with Bennett again, she’s not sure she’s willing to open old wounds and reveal the truth about her painful past. In the third installment of the Undone series, Corinne spotlights familiar characters as they navigate trauma, heartbreak, and first love. Bennett and Paloma’s relationship is raw and vulnerable, and their journey of relinquishing control is both necessary and inevitable. Their romance evolves as they open up to one another, and in return, the reader is rewarded with a love story that’s as lyrical, evocative, and emotional as poetry.
A deep and moving portrayal of first love.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781668219423
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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