An offbeat romance with an intriguing premise that will leave readers guessing right until the very end.
A middle-aged man and a much younger woman conduct a rocky romance via songs.
Tauri is a Chinese businessman living in America. He’s on his annual trip to his hometown, Chongqing, in southwest China, scouting investment opportunities when he meets Libi, a young woman. Libi, seeking investors for a photography studio business, ends up forging a connection with Tauri despite their 30-year age gap, a connection that Tauri believes to be romantic. Sparks fly, but Tauri is still—unhappily—married to Aquri, whom he begins divorcing as he maintains a fraught and sporadic connection with Libi over WeChat. Tauri spends the following years trying to decode messages Libi sends him through the creation (and updating) of a music playlist (his cryptographic efforts are supported by zodiac and tarot readings). Though it seems the author intends Libi to come to the understanding that she wants to be with the older Tauri, much of the narrative seems dedicated to a near descent into madness and obsession, during which Tauri has to consistently assure himself that his paramour wants him back and is sending messages through song (“Something was off between his understanding and what was genuinely in Libi’s mind. Libi showed her love and affection via this playlist. But she constantly put him down in this real world”). At times the story feels repetitive, with too little input from Libi, who rejects and then pulls Tauri back in several times over the course of the novel, leading the reader to wonder whether the desired effect is that of a meditation on the long journey it can take to find happiness or an exploration of delusion. That being said, the breathless intensity of the protagonist’s fixation makes the book a compelling read, pushing the reader to reckon with Tauri’s pursuit of happiness.
An offbeat romance with an intriguing premise that will leave readers guessing right until the very end.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798987097632
Page Count: 319
Publisher: Melvilleverse Press
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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.
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