Emotionally intense in a way that overwhelms the slow-burn romance.
A dance teacher falls for a professional hockey player who happens to have been her pretend boyfriend in high school.
When she was 16 and working as a barista at the Mall of America, Aurora Evans met a Canadian guy in town for a hockey tournament. They hit it off, and for years afterward, she used the excuse of her “Canadian boyfriend” to get out of social obligations. Now, 13 years later, Rory has left behind a career as a ballerina and runs a dance studio for kids. When Olivia, one of her students, returns to class following the death of her mother, Rory meets the girl’s father, Mike Martin, a pro hockey player, and she senses something familiar about him. She strongly suspects that Mike may just be the original inspiration for the fake Canadian boyfriend she conjured in high school, and she covertly attempts to connect the dots. Holiday provides a brief content warning about potentially triggering material, but it doesn’t fully describe the depth of Mike’s grief and Rory’s experiences with a toxic upbringing and disordered eating as they’re explored in the book. Mike and Rory become friends, but Rory is increasingly worried that her longtime lie about her imaginary boyfriend will come to light. While the book focuses on healing from trauma, complete with some wonderful mentions of therapy, the romance feels secondary to Rory’s reckoning with her harmful childhood and her experience as a professional dancer. Mike is sweet and kind, but he serves primarily as the impetus for Rory to make some changes. Considering that Rory and Mike are now adults, the focus on a somewhat inconsequential lie from Rory’s teen years feels silly, undermining the emotional and nuanced portrayal of love amid loss and recovery.
Emotionally intense in a way that overwhelms the slow-burn romance.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781538724927
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A book that will wolfishly appeal to the most heated fans of omegaverse erotica.
Tess Covington is a talented, successful contractor who just learned that she’s a late-in-life omega wolf shifter. Her new boss, surly innkeeper Hunter Barrett, is an alpha who’s opposed to the remodeling she’s there to do.
Tess hasn’t made it public that she’s being considered for her own HGTV makeover show, but she runs her career like a well-oiled machine. She posts a lot of her remodels on social media, granting her a certain level of celebrity, and leans on her brothers to help run the business she took over after a stroke made it impossible for her father to keep working. Hunter’s last serious relationship with an omega 10 years ago left him deeply wounded, ending when his parents were killed in a car accident and he moved back home to take care of their lodge—hence his resistance to change. With few exceptions, Tess keeps her newly diagnosed omega status to herself. Unfortunately, as an alpha, Hunter sniffs her out and seems to be the only person capable of helping her with her sudden heats, so there’s a lot of very smutty caretaking. The specificity of omegaverse hierarchy might be new to some readers, but Ferguson’s worldbuilding is quick, easy, and deeply horny. General romance readers might enjoy the grumpy-meets-sunshine and stranded-in-a-snowstorm tropes, although for a book about shifters, the characters spend surprisingly little time in wolf form. There’s not much danger of character development or surprising plot elements here, but for fans excited to read about animalistic mating, that might be enough.
A book that will wolfishly appeal to the most heated fans of omegaverse erotica.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593953693
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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