An engrossing romance with fully imagined characters.
Ronan’s troubled past follows him to Santa Cruz, where he meets artistic and complicated Shiloh, the two finding comfort, confidence, and a growing romance.
In this third entry in the Lost Boys trilogy, Ronan Wentz leaves small-town Wisconsin—and a trail of darkness—behind him. At just 18, he’s spent 10 years in foster care; his mother, a victim of domestic abuse, and his violent father are dead. Summoned by his long-lost uncle, Ronan vows to finish high school in California. Seventeen-year-old Shiloh Barrera, who was raised by Bibi, her maternal great-grandmother, avoids her mother, with whom she has a strained relationship. Ronan works hard to escape his nightmarish past, but violence dogs him. Shiloh throws herself into her work and her passion, jewelry making, to prove her worth to the mother who didn’t want her. Through high school and beyond, the pair face setbacks that test their relationship. Tattooed Ronan is a bad boy with a pure heart, a compelling romantic lead. Shiloh is independent and motivated, yet believably—and relatably—vulnerable and insecure. Their romance is deep and emotional, and readers will connect with their growing love. Bibi is a delightful, endearing character whose presence is a highlight and anchor of the narrative. The satisfying ending is sure to please series fans. Shiloh’s “unknown father’s DNA” makes her lighter-skinned than her Black mother. Ronan presents white.
An engrossing romance with fully imagined characters. (playlist, content warning, author’s note with resources) (Romance. 16-adult)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781464243387
Page Count: 413
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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 light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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