A satisfying sequel that deepens the characters and storylines introduced in the first installment.
A bookstore owner and author finds additional inspiration in the characters from great literature in Andersen’s romance sequel.
More than a year has passed since Aurelia Lyndham assumed ownership of her Aunt Marigold’s bookshop, On the Square Books, and discovered the shop’s remarkable secret: Every night, characters from the store’s Recommended Reads table step out of the pages of the books and socialize with one another. This unique situation provided the inspiration for Aurelia’s debut novel, which was about Count Vronsky’s life after Anna Karenina; she now begins outlining a novel about art forgery. Aurelia is deeply in love with Oliver, a book editor (“Their teasing and bickering over edits to her book had morphed into something real and playful”), and she asks him to move in with her, though she wonders how she can keep the secrets of the bookshop under wraps. When she puts the novels of Charles Dickens on the Recommended Reads table, she’s particularly touched to meet Harriet from Little Dorrit. Saddened by Harriet’s solitude, Aurelia resolves to put her planned novel on hold and write a happy ending for Harriet’s story. Despite her best efforts, Aurelia struggles to write the story, frustrating Harriet. Can Aurelia find the right conclusion for the character, or will Harriet write the ending that’s best for her? In this second installment of Andersen’s Midnights on the Square series, Aurelia’s nascent career as an author is the central focus, with her attempts to write a satisfying ending for Harriet echoing her own struggle to pen a second novel. The supporting characters have a chance to shine, especially Aurelia’s boyfriend, Oliver. As Aurelia’s relationship with Oliver deepens, she meets his family, including his younger brother, Jack; although the brothers live close to each other, their relationship is strained, a dynamic that Andersen fruitfully explores throughout the novel. But the heart of the project continues to be Aurelia’s love of classic literature and the characters who make the stories come to life.
A satisfying sequel that deepens the characters and storylines introduced in the first installment.Pub Date: March 23, 2026
ISBN: 9798998747724
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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