A sexy tale of undeniable attraction featuring a sensitive hero struggling with past trauma.
An American law student and a British businessman reunite following an ill-fated affair in Grace’s romance novel.
Entering a conference room, Dawn Mathison is shocked to see Callan Marlowe, a solar energy entrepreneur apparently doing business with the New York City law firm where she works while studying for the bar exam and paying off student loan debt. Dawn calls her best friend, Jane, who still lives in hometown Canton, Alabama, and who refers to Callan as “your hot but emotionally unavailable British fuckwad.” Callan then appears at Dawn’s desk, noting he is surprised to see her, too. The narrative proceeds to convey the couple’s past and present via their alternating perspectives. They met while Dawn attended a program in Cambridge. He confessed that he had previously been married but remained mum on other details about his life. After a few weeks, he announced, “I can’t do this,” and she returned home to the United States. Soon after Dawn and Callan meet again at the firm, a senior lawyer takes Dawn with him to inspect Callan’s business venture in Spain. There, Callan finally shares with Dawn the tragedies that led him to be so fearful of commitment. Further complications occur, and Jane’s wedding becomes the setting for another important reunion. The author includes several sex scenes, effectively dramatizing the couple’s irresistible attraction to one another. Dawn is a wry, appealing heroine who marvels during one encounter, “She wasn’t a tall, gangly, overachieving dork right now. No, she was a sexy temptress who’d brought this Nordic god to his knees. And onto his back.” Callan is also given interesting dimensions, including panic attacks brought on by his guilt over the past. The novel includes a nice range of secondary characters, particularly Jane, who provide color and commentary.
A sexy tale of undeniable attraction featuring a sensitive hero struggling with past trauma.Pub Date: April 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781509245857
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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