A flavorful novel about second (and third) chances at love and all of the foibles that endanger it.
In Miles’ debut romance novel, a woman gets a third chance with the man of her dreams.
Julia Dunphy and Willian Quinn meet in high school; she works for her father’s San Francisco restaurant, and he works for his uncle’s seafood company. They bond as lab partners in AP biology. Julia wants to become a marine biologist (“I’m not laughing at you,” William tells her after she describes what she wants to study. “I’m just laughing at the idea of anyone getting that excited about whale fecal plumes”). They date until their freshman year of college, when distance and another boy pull them apart. Julia marries that other boy, trust fund kid Kevin Beale, but when Kevin abruptly leaves to pursue some unresolved professional ambitions, Julia is left to look after their troubled daughter, Paige, (and the couple’s many aquariums) on her own. She runs into William for the first time in years (he’s working as the chef at her parents’ restaurant after spending some time in Alaska), and the two realize there are still some feelings between them. They even talk about the possibility of opening up a whale-watching business together, but soon life interferes, and their dreams—professional and romantic—are again deferred. After a further six years apart, Julia finds herself truly at rope’s end. Kevin has left her again, she now has a son to look after in addition to her daughter, and she’s living back in her parents’ house. She discovers that William went ahead and started a whale-watching business without her. Meanwhile, she struggles to resurrect her deceased uncle’s aquarium business. When an opportunity arises to help William’s family out of a jam, Julia does what she can, if only to make up for all the times she broke William’s heart. Will this third and last opportunity to get together fall apart like the others?
The author writes with humor and gusto, capturing her characters’ big personalities and prickly dynamics. Here, Julia’s 13-year-old daughter, Paige, is forced to come along on an errand to the grocery store: “[T]hat didn’t stop Paige from grousing the whole way over the indignity of having to accompany her family….Paige spent the entire time complaining about everything from the temperature in the store, to the paleness of the strawberries, to the fact that the milk did not expire late enough for her.” The novel jumps back and forth between the present, when Julia is pursuing William for the third time, and the two prior eras in which she knew him. The alternating structure works quite well, providing much-needed context while keeping the reader clear about where things are headed. The love triangle feels a little contrived—William and Kevin are perhaps a bit too neatly presented as the man Julia should have chosen and the man she obviously should not have—but fans of the romance genre will enjoy the slow, decadeslong dance as it leads to its inevitable conclusion. A flavorful novel about second (and third) chances at love and all of the foibles that endanger it.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Hibernia Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.
A happily engaged woman is pulled back to her hometown—and her first love—when tragedy strikes.
Billie Wright is living her dream, running a thriving fertility clinic in New York City and engaged to a wonderful trauma surgeon named Dean. Her happily-ever-after meant giving up her life in Wisconsin, where she left behind many friends as well as her high school sweetheart, Mick. Although they’d been deeply in love, when Billie’s ambition pulled her away from home and toward the city, Mick couldn’t handle either the distance or her busy schedule. Billie has finally moved on from that heartbreak—but then she receives a phone call from Mick, the first communication between them in years. Her best friend, Erin, died in a car accident, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Now Billie must return home to help sort Erin’s affairs and provide some kind of comfort to Phoebe while grieving the loss of her best friend. Of course, being back home also means being in close contact with Mick. Their feelings for each other may not have ever gone away, and their proximity leads to big decisions for Billie. Can she ever reconcile her current life in Manhattan with her past in Wisconsin? And which one will be her future? Giffin knows how to do drama, and she ratchets up the stakes with every page as she continues to reveal new obstacles for Billie. The ending wraps up quite neatly, but the nostalgia-filled ride is full of twists and turns that will keep readers flipping the pages.
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593600320
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
© 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.
