A cute holiday romance with a keen eye for beloved tropes.
A fake relationship between a wealthy department store owner and an inventive clothing designer kicks off this charming holiday romance.
Oliver Russell is a family-oriented man, which is why he feels such pressure to bring a date home for the holidays. Not only would it appease his mother, who wants her only child to get married and produce offspring, but his father is sick and would like to see him settled. Victoria Scott is a passionate fashion designer with an eye for vintage styles, but it doesn't quite pay the bills. For now, her designs are mainly sold online or through friends. That's why Oliver first meets her working as a bar manager to make ends meet while teaching fashion design to underprivileged students. Despite making a disastrous first impression on each other, they soon realize there's mutual benefit to be had. Oliver is helping his cousin rehab the family's grand department store. He needs a tie to the community as a show of good faith and a stand-in girlfriend for opening day. In return, he promises that Victoria can host her students' runway show and showcase her own designs during the celebration. Readers who love a tantalizing slow burn will very much enjoy the pining between Ollie and Victoria. Their well-paced and tender romance feels organic and natural amid the delightful excitement of the upcoming Christmas season. While it's easy to sink into this wintry fantasy, both Ollie and Victoria have baggage that sometimes slows the momentum. At 32, Ollie still feels beholden to his family, letting them goad him into emotional situations he doesn't quite want. Meanwhile, Victoria's fear of relationships comes from an earlier accident that left her unable to bear children. She frequently questions her own womanhood as it relates to pregnancy and often feels less-than when looking for potential romantic partners, a plotline readers should be aware of.
A cute holiday romance with a keen eye for beloved tropes.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-335-45997-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
