A simmering supernatural love story with sharp dialogue.
A fae king falls for a human in Maxwell’s dark paranormal romance series starter.
Wisconsinite Bryn Meara feels like she’s won the lottery when she gets a letter with a promotional offer for a free stay in Nightfall, one of the hottest hotels in Las Vegas. In the hotel’s lobby, she’s instantly attracted to its sexy, elusive owner, Caiden Verran: “My God, his eyes…I’m completely entranced, unable to move or breathe.” As a supernatural fae who’s king of the secret Night Court of Faerie, he doesn’t really have time for romantic affairs, and certainly not with a human who knows nothing about how his world works. Nonetheless, he follows her into the casino, then to the bar for a drink. The next thing they know, they wake up married, wedding rings and all, with no memory of the event. In normal circumstances, a quick annulment would be easy enough, but this marriage is anything but normal; it turns out that Bryn is magically bound to him. Night Court royalty are cursed to never be parted from their mates—at least, not without considerable pain and eventual death. If the situation weren’t tough enough already, Caiden feels inexorably drawn to Bryn, even though he knows he should stay away, for both their sakes. In this first of Maxwell’s Deviant Kings books, the author delivers a story with lots of fae tricks and plenty of steamy scenes. The connection between Caiden and Bryn is palpable—expressed from both their perspectives, in alternating chapters—and not just because they need each other to survive. Their banter provides welcome levity to the story, and gives their relationship a genuine, relatable quality. There are several glimpses into the wider fae world, but this novel might have been enhanced by more detailed worldbuilding; as it stands, the story feels rather insular. A planned sequel may offer more information about the world of the Dark Fae; however, this one can easily be read as a standalone.
A simmering supernatural love story with sharp dialogue.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64937-327-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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