A heartwarming tale of trust and absolution from a skilled novelist.
A celebrity chef and the owner of a restaurant chain clash as co-hosts of a television cooking show but are required to fake date to save their reputations.
Nina Lyon is a James Beard Award–winning chef who's well known in the Los Angeles food world. Leo O’Donnell, who has an MBA, is the owner of Vinny’s, a chain of family-friendly restaurants started by his father. Both signed on to become hosts of The Next Cooking Champ! to help boost the visibility of their restaurants. But over the past three seasons, Nina’s honest critiques have earned her the nickname “Nasty Nina,” and her falling popularity has caused her to close two of her restaurants. Despite Leo’s genial persona, their acrimonious TV exchanges are not endearing them to anyone, and Leo’s businesses are also shuttering. Nina’s publicist advises them to conduct a showmance, fake date each other to boost their popularity. But enemies pretending to be lovers is difficult to pull off convincingly, and their online fans alternately laud them and savage them. Trust is slow to grow between them, but eventually it is only with each other that they can relax and truly be themselves. Their acceptance of each other as they truly are allows them to give each other space to be their best selves. After his father’s death, Leo took charge of growing the business and took on the emotional burden as head of family so zealously that it has become his life and has given him low self-esteem, crippling anxiety, and panic attacks. La Rosa sensitively shows Leo’s work on his mental health recovery. Nina has lost her focus as an innovative chef, and the closure of her last restaurant is inevitable. La Rosa convincingly shows how Nina recovers her passion for food and the story she wants to tell as a chef while finding a way to empower other women in the culinary world.
A heartwarming tale of trust and absolution from a skilled novelist.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-335-50634-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HQN
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.
A happily engaged woman is pulled back to her hometown—and her first love—when tragedy strikes.
Billie Wright is living her dream, running a thriving fertility clinic in New York City and engaged to a wonderful trauma surgeon named Dean. Her happily-ever-after meant giving up her life in Wisconsin, where she left behind many friends as well as her high school sweetheart, Mick. Although they’d been deeply in love, when Billie’s ambition pulled her away from home and toward the city, Mick couldn’t handle either the distance or her busy schedule. Billie has finally moved on from that heartbreak—but then she receives a phone call from Mick, the first communication between them in years. Her best friend, Erin, died in a car accident, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Now Billie must return home to help sort Erin’s affairs and provide some kind of comfort to Phoebe while grieving the loss of her best friend. Of course, being back home also means being in close contact with Mick. Their feelings for each other may not have ever gone away, and their proximity leads to big decisions for Billie. Can she ever reconcile her current life in Manhattan with her past in Wisconsin? And which one will be her future? Giffin knows how to do drama, and she ratchets up the stakes with every page as she continues to reveal new obstacles for Billie. The ending wraps up quite neatly, but the nostalgia-filled ride is full of twists and turns that will keep readers flipping the pages.
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593600320
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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