A contrived plot and underdeveloped characters keep this one on the bench.
A football player and an artist find true love after a one-night stand.
On Tuck Avery’s 35th birthday, his best friends surprise him with a trip to Manhattan’s most exclusive sex club. Tuck is happy for the distraction: It’s also the anniversary of his father’s death, and he's worried that he might be aging out of professional football. He meets a beautiful young woman, and the two have a night of anonymous, sizzling sex in a private room at the club. Ten weeks later, Francesca Lane is experiencing multiple crises: A vengeful boss just fired her from her job as a tattoo artist and she realizes she’s pregnant from her one-night stand with the mysterious stranger. Having grown up bouncing among foster homes, being left behind over and over, Francesca decides to keep the baby. Coincidentally, she discovers that her mystery lover has been living in her apartment building for years. They’ve never crossed paths before because he has his own private elevator to the penthouse. Tuck can’t believe his luck—the woman he can’t stop thinking about has been right under his nose all along. Francesca decides to keep the baby a secret from Tuck despite the fact that her roommates, several other building residents, and even the doorman know about her pregnancy. Eventually, Tuck and Francesca can no longer resist each other, and they begin a passionate affair that lasts for months. The book steams merrily forward with this common sense–defying plot. Tuck, a wide receiver who can sight and catch a football from anywhere on the field, somehow fails to see the baby bump right in front of him. Increasingly more dramatic storylines are introduced, perhaps with the goal of creating a chaotic, happy whirlwind of a book, but instead it feels tired and sloppy.
A contrived plot and underdeveloped characters keep this one on the bench.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-3846-1
Page Count: 287
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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