A lively debut with a charming community setting and a slightly drawn-out slow-burn romance.
An event planner and an astronaut fake a relationship for the holiday season in this romance debut.
Amerie Price has a lot on her plate. Her relationship recently ended, she was let go from her job, and she’s trying not to let her worries about her parents’ health overwhelm her. To add even more stress, Amerie is trying to get her own event-planning business off the ground and is desperately searching for her first client. Vincent Rogers is an astronaut, which in Houston feels almost like a pickup line, but he’s genuine...except for the fact that he’s been lying for months to his family about having a girlfriend. Vincent and Amerie first meet at a coffee shop when she spills caramel latte all over him. Then, luckily, he turns up at the coffee shop again just in time to help her save face. Her ex is there with his new girlfriend, so Amerie, thinking quickly, introduces Vincent as her new boyfriend. Then Vincent’s sister shows up, and when he introduces Amerie as the girlfriend he’s mentioned, Amerie impulsively says she’d be happy to attend the family’s black-tie New Year’s Eve party. Amerie has no intention of going, but Vincent offers to make it worth her while by letting her live rent-free in his extra bedroom for a few months so she can save up money for her new business. Vincent’s contacts could also prove useful to Amerie in building a roster of clients. All she has to do is play the part of his doting girlfriend until the new year. Amerie is snarky and acerbic in the best way, softening up in the face of Vincent’s more cheerful, golden retriever–like energy. Amerie and Vinent’s romance is quite a slow burn, and sometimes their communication styles and personalities feel disconnected. The space industry in Houston is a fun setting, though, leading to delightful space puns and general nerdery.
A lively debut with a charming community setting and a slightly drawn-out slow-burn romance.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593640227
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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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