Sizzling chemistry and witty banter elevate a common Christmas romance premise into a royally entertaining fairy tale.
A New York taxi driver picks up a European princess in desperate need of a lift.
Leo Ricci is a young man of 25 with a heavy burden: He became the guardian of his 11-year-old sister, Gabby, after their parents died in a tragic car accident. Leo holds down several jobs in order to make ends meet, including driving a friend’s cab. One day, while he's driving Gabby home from school, they see a beautiful woman in a ball gown trying to hail a cab outside the United Nations, and Gabby insists they pick her up. Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Eldovia is in New York determined to kick-start political and economic changes that will improve life in her small European country. Marie appreciates Leo’s charming combination of old-fashioned charm and gentle teasing—he’s the only person who treats her like a woman, not a princess. She hires him to be her driver for the rest of her visit, and both try to resist the powerful attraction they feel. When her trip comes to an end, she impulsively invites Leo and Gabby to Eldovia for Christmas. Holiday is clearly aiming at readers who enjoy Hallmark Christmas movies, which often feature sweet, everyday characters thrust into extraordinary love affairs with royalty. There is depth and nuance in Leo and Marie’s romance despite their vast differences in wealth and status. Marie and Leo are both determined to live with dignity and strive to achieve their individual goals. The novel is charming and self-aware and successfully plays with the conventions of the “commoner falling in love with royalty” script.
Sizzling chemistry and witty banter elevate a common Christmas romance premise into a royally entertaining fairy tale.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-295207-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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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