A winning romance that deftly balances heft and humor.
Sparks fly when a struggling screenwriter gets the chance of a lifetime to write a rom-com with her hero.
Once upon a time, Emma Wheeler dreamed of being a screenwriter. She put her dream on hold, however, to care for her father, who’s been living with both partial paralysis and Ménière’s disease since an accident 10 years ago. Emma lives for her family now—caring for her father around the clock and doing whatever she can to make sure her younger sister, Sylvie, has the chance to go to college and pursue her passions. But then her manager offers her the miraculous opportunity to help her hero, Charlie Yates, rewrite his first-ever romantic comedy. Charlie typically writes big, blockbuster action films—romantic comedies aren’t his forte, and his first attempt is terrible. But romance is very much in Emma’s wheelhouse, and she knows exactly what Charlie needs to make his screenplay sing. The only problem? He very much does not want her help. He also doesn’t like rom-coms and may not even believe in love. But Emma’s living in Charlie’s fancy L.A. house for six weeks, there to help him rebuild his very flawed movie, and she’s ready to work. Before the screenplay can get better, she has to teach Charlie a few things about romantic comedies (and life in general). This means going line dancing and maybe even kissing…for research purposes. Center, the prolific author of many romances (Hello Stranger, 2023, etc.), clearly understands what it takes to create a winning romantic comedy and puts Charlie and Emma through many of the most delightful rom-com tropes (enemies to lovers, forced proximity). But the book, like all of Center’s work, doesn’t completely eschew darkness—both Emma and Charlie are dealing with trauma and grief. Emma’s feelings of guilt and responsibility toward her family make her journey toward a happily-ever-after with Charlie feel all the more satisfying—as Emma’s dad wisely says, “Happiness is always better with a little bit of sadness.”
A winning romance that deftly balances heft and humor.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781250283801
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.
While on her sister’s wedding cruise, a woman enlists her childhood best friend for help as she attempts to woo her longtime crush.
JoJo Burton is bad at love. After she leaves her terrible fiancé, Pearce Richmond, at the altar, she’s convinced she might never settle down. But during her sister’s wedding, which is being held on an eight-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cozumel, she and her family concoct a plan that will help her seduce her recently divorced childhood crush, Finn Turner. The two of them once shared a blindfolded kiss that might have ruined JoJo for all other men, and she’s never forgotten it. But then JoJo’s best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up. Cooper and JoJo were inseparable as children but didn’t talk for years after she got engaged to Pearce. She doesn’t know why he suddenly disappeared on her, but it doesn’t matter—he’s here now, and she needs him to help her get Finn to reenact that long-ago kiss. But after she and Cooper share a cabin, get thrown together for every wedding week activity, and even engage in the classic friendly flirting meant to make another man jealous, JoJo starts to realize that Finn might not be the man she’s been waiting for, after all. Center keeps things light, focusing on humor even when the subject matter veers into family drama. JoJo and Cooper find themselves caught up in the sort of tropes that are catnip for romance fans—he takes care of her when she has a sunburn, for instance, and they participate in a slow-dance contest. As Center reveals in an author’s note at the beginning, “Spoiler: This book will end well.” The destination may not be a surprise, but the journey is a delight.
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781250408051
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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