Poor pacing and a jam-packed plot leave little time for romance.
Australian academic rivals use a loophole to land the same job.
Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have been clashing since they were freshmen in college. Both are part of Sydney’s academic precariat, adjuncts who cobble together jobs teaching English until they can land full-time positions. Now in their early 30s, they have been housemates for the past eight years, living with others in a large six-bedroom share house. When the perfect position for both of them is listed in Hobart, each has personal reasons for wanting the job. Sadie wants financial independence and distance from her supportive but smothering older sister, Chess. Jonah wants to be closer to his sister, Fiona, who’s going through a brutal divorce. Sadie lands the job, but the contract outlines a benefit called “partner hire,” which compels the university to find work for a qualified spouse. Feeling guilty, Sadie convinces Jonah they should get married. After all, they have the same address, and plenty of people have observed their lustful dynamic. After a lengthy exposition of the scheme’s logistics, Sadie and Jonah finally arrive in Hobart. The plot is driven by describing their workload and clashes with the administration’s restructuring team, while the emotional heart of the book is in their relationships with their siblings. Sadie has a huge fight with Chess before the wedding, and her grief, guilt, and attempts to fix the rift are the basis of her character arc. Jonah and his sister learn to love and care for each other away from the quelling influence of their father. The romance plot is lackluster, a footnote to the lovingly detailed minutiae of the workings of the Australian university system.
Poor pacing and a jam-packed plot leave little time for romance.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781668092330
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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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