Mouthwatering romantic fare for foodies and wine connoisseurs featuring an irrepressible hero.
A beautiful woman who has sworn off marriage thinks she’s found the perfect temporary fling in Babula’s novel.
When it comes to getting involved with men, independent Quinn, a gorgeous, green-eyed, 6-foot-tall redhead, has one unshakeable rule: They have to be unhappily married, with no kids. (After all, she’s no homewrecker.) Having sworn off marriage after two failures, only hot sex and romance with no expectations on either side does it for Quinn. (The fact that she’ll eventually have to pay for her cavalier disregard for the wives of her short-term lovers hardly comes as a surprise, but the author’s audacious twist on the inevitable comeuppance does, thankfully leaving her hero’s spiky, bright spirit undimmed.) Quinn’s eventual realization that her determined, no-strings approach to relationships has consequences begins when Marcus, “the one whose mere presence zaps my appetite, flushes my cheeks and makes me want to giggle like a schoolgirl mooning over her first crush,” walks into the upscale restaurant where Quinn is the wine- and food-savvy sommelier. “I love the magic that happens when a great glass of wine pairs perfectly with a dish,” she says. “It’s lusty and romantic…. It’s akin to the ideal relationship, fleeting but swoon-worthy.” Perfect though he seems, if Marcus isn’t married, Quinn will have to go with her second choice, a handsome, married, infidelity newbie. The author’s lavish descriptions of clothes, gourmet meals, and wine—some chapters open with a description of enticing menu offerings—and the characters’ nearly exclusive focus on hormone-charged relationships make for an engaging rom-com Sex and the City vibe. When she can no longer ignore the messy realities of her affairs, it takes time for Quinn to get past her defensive reaction and face a difficult decision: “I don’t feel guilty. I didn’t make any vows,” she says. The author doesn’t let her off the hook, but the off-the-wall result satisfies, and humor and a light touch are ever-present (Quinn’s blind date with a picky vegetarian at her Italian mother’s bountiful, nonvegetarian dinner table is a kick).
Mouthwatering romantic fare for foodies and wine connoisseurs featuring an irrepressible hero.Pub Date: July 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781685136307
Page Count: 328
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hokey plot, good fun.
A business executive becomes an unjustly wanted man.
Walter Nash attends his estranged father Tiberius’ funeral, where Ty’s Army buddy, Shock, rips into him for not being the kind of man the Vietnam vet Ty was. Instead, Nash is the successful head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, where he earns a handsome paycheck that supports his wife, Judith, and his teenage daughter, Maggie. An FBI agent approaches Nash after the funeral and asks him to be a mole in his company, because the feds consider chief executive Rhett Temple “a criminal consorting with some very dangerous people.” It’s “a chance to be a hero,” the agent says, while admitting that Nash’s personal and financial risks are immense. Indeed, readers soon find Temple and a cohort standing over a fresh corpse and wondering what to do with it. Temple is not an especially talented executive, and he frets that his hated father, the chairman of the board, will eventually replace him with Nash. (Father-son relationships are not glorified in this tale.) Temple is cartoonishly rotten. He answers to a mysterious woman in Asia, whom he rightly fears. He kills. He beds various women including Judith, whom he tries to turn against Nash. The story’s dramatic turn follows Maggie’s kidnapping, where Nash is wrongly accused. Believing Nash’s innocence, Shock helps him change completely with intense exercise, bulking up and tattooing his body, and learning how to fight and kill. Eventually he looks nothing like the dweeb who’d once taken up tennis instead of football, much to Ty’s undying disgust. Finding the victim and the kidnappers becomes his sole mission. As a child watching his father hunt, Nash could never have killed a living thing. But with his old life over—now he will kill, and he will take any risks necessary. His transformation is implausible, though at least he’s not green like the Incredible Hulk. Loose ends abound by the end as he ignores a plea to “not get on that damn plane,” so a sequel is a necessity.
Hokey plot, good fun.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781538757987
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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