A surprisingly satisfying love story between two very ordinary people.
In Verma’s novel, an unexpected May-December romance blooms between a Catholic nurse and a Jewish professor.
Left alone to care for her newborn twins after her husband Amir abandons the family, Maria is so overwhelmed that when she wins a free trip to Portugal at a church raffle, she seriously contemplates giving the prize away. Ultimately, she decides to leave the babies in her beloved Mamãe’s capable hands and jets off for a well-deserved overseas adventure. While in Portugal, she meets and becomes fast friends with Jerry, a divorced academic who is immediately enthralled with the younger woman. Despite their obvious spark, Jerry worries if a romance with Maria is even possible, given their age disparity—he’s in his mid-50s and she is in her late 30s. Verma’s characters worry prodigiously in her careful and methodical chronicle of a burgeoning adult relationship—their intense uncertainty serves as the main source of drama and tension in what is otherwise a rather pedestrian love story in which two people meet, fall in love, and then have to deal with the banalities of everyday life. Will Jerry still feel the same passion for Maria once he realizes he has to share her with two babies who cry a lot and require frequent diaper changes? How will they make a long-term relationship work if Maria lives in Florida and Jerry lives in Boston? Verma mines these real-life conundrums to extract a true sense of authenticity; this may not be high romance, but it feels true. The narrative’s dramatic engine is teased long before it actually comes into sharp relief when the couple travels to San Pedro de Atacama and Maria must confront most closely held secret (“oh my god, what shall I do?”). Will the unearthed truth undermine the foundations of Maria and Jerry’s love? Readers aren’t kept on pins and needles for long waiting for the answer, but that’s the kind of drama reserved for overly romanticized fiction. Verma is more interested in keeping things real.
A surprisingly satisfying love story between two very ordinary people.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9781964452647
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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