A smart, sexy, and spirited love story that’s unafraid to embrace both grit and glamor.
Starling presents a fiery enemies-to-lovers romance, set in the adrenaline-fueled world of Formula 1 racing.
Rocco Vittori, a fallen star of Formula 1, is desperate to reclaim his place on the podium. Nico Angelini, a fiercely talented and trailblazing driver, is determined to rise to the top of a sport that’s long shut out women like her. The pair’s rivalry kicks off in the public arena of social media and intensifies after a chance encounter in a Las Vegas bar, which leads to a steamy, charged showdown involving a game of billiards. Before long, they find themselves on the same Maverick Racing team. Starling’s narrative thrives on brisk dialogue and the main characters’ quick tempers. Rocco and Nico’s verbal sparring is electric (“Doesn’t Rocco mean dick in Italian?”), but underneath the sexual tension is a deeper exploration of trust and trauma. When Nico reflects on her need to race, she reveals the story’s emotional stakes: “Racing Formula 1 was like her blood, her bone. If they were gone, so was she—not just a persona…but her, the real her.” The novel’s alternating perspectives deepen the tension and reveal each character’s troubled past—Rocco’s battle with self-doubt and media scrutiny, Nico’s resilience shaped by loss and survival. Despite their combative dynamic, the two share a need for speed, a passion for racing, and the scars of past betrayals. Starling’s prose occasionally veers into melodrama, especially in its more sensual moments, but the narrative remains grounded by its deft portrayal of ambition, its exploration of gender dynamics in male-dominated spaces, and its examination of the redemptive power of trust. Supporting characters, such as Nico’s lively best friend, Charles, deliver levity and warmth.
A smart, sexy, and spirited love story that’s unafraid to embrace both grit and glamor.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9798895394571
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
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