A sweet, slow-burn story about a woman who finds herself before finding love.
A matchmaker realizes her best friend has been her perfect match all along.
Kamila Hussain is an accountant by trade and a people-pleaser by nature. She is a vibrant, self-confident, and fashionable woman who is at the center of a large, extended group of friends. She takes care of her elderly father, hosts weekly Bollywood watch parties, and is planning a puppy prom gala for her favorite animal shelter. Despite her outward bravado and confidence, she is plagued by self-doubt and tortured by memories of her late mother’s harsh, judgmental attacks. Kamila’s best friend is Rohan Nasser; in fact, he’s practically family since his brother is married to her sister. He’s always willing to co-host a party or help her father to a doctor’s appointment. Kamila has taken it upon herself to find love matches for her friends—driven by her joy at seeing people in satisfying relationships but also fueled by a conviction that her friends would be happier if they followed her advice. She ignores her friends' hints that Rohan might be the perfect romantic partner for her; she can’t imagine changing the safe, comfortable status quo she has developed with him. However, Kamila’s usual sunny personality is disrupted by the return of her childhood archnemesis, Jana Suleiman. Kamila suspects something might be going on between Rohan and Jana, and she can no longer ignore that her feelings for Rohan are rooted more in romance than friendship. Although Heron’s novel contains a complete romantic arc, the primary focus is on Kamila’s journey. Although Kamila is a successful adult, many of the dilemmas and difficulties she tries to overcome date to her teenage years, which lends the novel a coming-of-age feel.
A sweet, slow-burn story about a woman who finds herself before finding love.Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-3500-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
PERSPECTIVES
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