A beautiful, slow-burn romance celebrates love in all its forms.
A Toronto woman plans to move to the U.K. to open an inn.
Ruby Dhanji loves the Christmas season, which reminds her of many joyful times with her late mother. Ruby recently gained access to an inheritance that will allow her to open the English country inn that was her mother’s dream. She’s moving to London on New Year’s Day and, before she goes, she’s determined to enjoy every last parade, holiday market, and gingerbread latte the city of Toronto has to offer. After a chance encounter with handsome but grumpy dermatologist Rashid Hakim, Ruby discovers he has loose ties to her friend group. Rashid has temporarily relocated to Toronto for his family. His sister has recently separated from her husband and needs help with her 5-year-old twin daughters. Ruby discovers his family owns a chain of European luxury hotels and thinks he might be able to help her; since she’s always worked in retail, she’s had difficulty landing a hotel job in England. She offers to show Rashid and his nieces the best holiday events in the Toronto, hoping he’ll give her a good reference to his family’s business. But while they have chemistry, it turns out that they only see the worst in each other: Rashid thinks Ruby is frivolous and materialistic, while Ruby thinks Rashid is judgmental and privileged. As they spend more time together, though, they discard these misconceptions and become friends. They decide a brief holiday fling can’t hurt either of them since they’ll both be leaving Toronto soon. Heron carefully crafts interesting, fully realized characters and gives them time to grow. Although the ending feels a little rushed, both Ruby and Rashid are given the opportunity to fully explore their dreams and obligations before committing to each other.
A beautiful, slow-burn romance celebrates love in all its forms.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781538725498
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.
A heartbroken man lusts after his therapist while seeking revenge on a drug kingpin and his enforcer.
Mitch Haskell’s wife, Angela, died two years ago of an apparent suicide, but Mitch has always believed the scene was staged. Certainly, she would never have willingly left their young son, Andrew, behind. Consumed with a thirst for vengeance, Mitch—a former Marine and undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and currently a police detective—is struggling with alcohol dependency and uncontrolled rage. Andrew is living with his in-laws, who are making not-so-subtle suggestions that they might apply for permanent guardianship if Mitch can’t get it together. So his boss and best friend, John Bowie, mandates that he go into therapy, which puts him in the path of sexy Dr. Dylan Reede. Within a few days, Mitch makes a connection between two new murders and the death of his former partner; finds a big clue that points to the truth about Angela’s death; goes undercover as a homeless man; takes on a vicious drug cartel; and obnoxiously bullies Dylan with a charm offensive that leads them inevitably to bed. While Mitch seems to lean into the stereotype of the ex-soldier/cop with deeply buried trauma who believes that the ends justify the means—at least in law enforcement—Dylan offers the strength and sweetness to help him start breaking down his walls, allowing herself to be vulnerable in turn. Is passionate sex enough to ground a relationship and a family for the long term? For these characters, and the breakneck speed of this thriller, it’s as good a foundation as any.
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781538743027
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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