An entertaining, warmhearted yarn about love that persists through extreme transmogrifications.
A woman magically cursed with premature aging gets her groove back courtesy of a sexy mystery man in this fantasy romance.
Nona May Taylor is a 23-year-old woman trapped in an 83-year-old body for the last five years thanks to a curse placed on her by Rebecca Delanore, a witch. Rebecca stole Nona’s face, form, and voice along with her flourishing career as a folk singer. Nona is holed up in a remote Montana cabin with her relatives and manager, who were turned into talking animals by Rebecca’s spell. Her mother, Penny, and stepfather, Wally, are a hen and a hog; her sister, Bridget, and brother-in-law, Jack, are a fox and a rabbit; and her manager, Fritz, is a ferret. With her feeble strength, woozy balance, and blurred eyesight, Nona provides for everyone by hunting game with her shotgun, chopping firewood, and whipping up gourmet meals of fresh venison and huckleberry sauce, with Penny contributing eggs. When a huge snowfall blocks the roads, they come upon an injured hiker named Charlie Brown. Nona is instantly smitten by his 20-something good looks, insinuating charm, and guitar chops and by his habit of singing Nona’s old songs, including her hit “Missing Charlie.” The two spend an evening in intimate, flirty conversation despite their apparent 60-year age gap, and Nona wakes to find herself looking and feeling decades younger, with her senses restored and brunette streaks in her silver hair. As things heat up and she continues to de-age, she and her hopeful menagerie suspect that Charlie may be able to lift the curse by bringing true love to Nona—until she realizes he is not what he seems. Hardy’s distaff version of “Beauty and the Beast” treats its magical themes with a light touch and prose that’s witty and sparkling. (Nona: “What the hell was that thing you wore to the Grammys? Looked like Bridge here ate a wedding dress and a bag of skittles and barfed it up all over you.” Rebecca: “As if you’d know anything about current fashion, Grizzly Adams.”) The cute critters are not kid friendly thanks to their bawdy repartee and sex scenes that take on kinky overtones in a passage in which they regain their human forms for one night of pent-up passion. The result is a blithely captivating but very adult Disney story.
An entertaining, warmhearted yarn about love that persists through extreme transmogrifications.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68433-640-1
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.
Opposites attract when a Grim Reaper clashes with a Guardian Angel in this whimsical paranormal romance.
Darcy Moore is in a bit of a tough spot; she’s a Grim Reaper who’s grown tired of death. When she’s given her next assignment, Darcy decides to go rogue. Rather than reaping, Darcy is determined to save her mark, which only upsets the balance kept by the Department of Hauntings and Spirits. Nothing good comes from a Grim Reaper who’s gone AWOL. Bartender Gabriel Aetos works as a Guardian Angel. He doesn’t take kindly to the fact that a Grim Reaper is slinking around his territory. His role is to protect people, while hers is to usher souls into death. To him, their very natures are at odds and his sudden attraction to Darcy won’t change that. This is very much a grumpy-meets-grumpy romance. Gabriel tries hard to keep Darcy at arm’s length and is open about his mistrust of her. Darcy’s standoffishness, though, is born out of her feelings of isolation and loneliness. Dealing in death has taken an obvious toll on her, and she’s traveling her own introspective path on what it means to be human. Darcy’s fragility is what slowly convinces Gabriel to get close to her, despite the heady yearning he keeps under wraps. However, both view their jobs as central to their existence, for better or worse. While Darcy is actively wondering what it would mean to break free of her Grim Reaper responsibilities, Gabriel has never seemed to ponder being anything other than a Guardian Angel. Borison’s romances—most recently And Now, Back to You (2026)—always strike an emotional chord, with deep-seated conflicts that tap into themes of identity, connection, and grief. This addition is truly the epitome of a Borison romance.
A lovely and moving romance that examines what it truly means to live.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780063430464
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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