An entertaining romance that dwells on mutual accommodation as much as mind-blowing sex.
An intense sexual relationship is tested by compatibility issues and coronavirus restrictions in Moore’s fretful romance series-starter.
While covering a technology convention, journalist Dash Hall at first thinks that the “MiO” gadget he’s fondling is a video game controller; he’s flummoxed when Penny Maxwell, MiO’s attractive CEO and lead engineer, informs him that it’s actually a sex toy designed “to create a blended orgasmic experience” for women. Dash and Penny bump into each other that night at a bar, and soon, by following Penny’s no-nonsense instructions, Dash learns the hands-on version of the blended orgasm technique and provides her with shattering climaxes. Alas, the Covid-19 pandemic lands them in home quarantine, but Dash breaks it to move from San Francisco to Penny’s Los Angeles apartment to nurse her through a bad case of the virus. More orgasms ensue and Penny invites the preternaturally sensitive and supportive Dash into her bed on a permanent basis. But strains start to emerge as Covid lockdowns disrupt the financing and supply chain that Penny needs to keep her company going. Further stressing her out is Dash’s chaotic housekeeping—a product of his ADHD—that makes a seemingly permanent mess of her kitchen and laundry. The mounting pressures lead to a blow-up and break-up that Penny and Dash regret but don’t know how to repair. This first installment of Moore’s Love in the Quarantime series paints a colorful portrait of Covid-era relationships by evoking the ambient anxiety and problems of claustrophobic work-from-home arrangements. Moore’s prose is lively and full of racy banter (“If you want clearheaded, I need more coffee, a bra, and at least ten feet of distance from your dick”), and the sex scenes are exuberant. However, the author’s determination to demonstrate proper communication sometimes results in dialogue that sounds like a sex-ed tutorial: “My G-spot is about two knuckles in….Go slow with these two fingers until you feel a spongy walnut.” Overall, Penny and Dash are flawed but endearing lovebirds whom readers will root for.
An entertaining romance that dwells on mutual accommodation as much as mind-blowing sex.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-950345-06-9
Page Count: 414
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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