Incredibly romantic and deeply human.
Reunited more than 10 years after their college romance ended in devastation, a couple realizes their connection is as strong as ever even as their wounds remain unhealed.
Before Verity Hill became an award-winning screenwriter and musical prodigy Wright “Monk” Bellamy became a household name, they met at a Georgia HBCU and fell in a deeper love than they ever thought possible, considering what they had each witnessed from their parents. Their relationship only lasted a few months, but it left a lasting impact. Now they find themselves in Los Angeles working on the same film, a Harlem Renaissance biopic that was also featured in Ryan’s Reel (2024), a romance following the movie’s director and star. This story begins in the present day but flashes back to when Verity and Monk first met and follows their college relationship through its apex to its crushing end, the result of a manic episode Verity experienced before she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder—something she never explained to Monk. Now working together and with intense attraction again firing up, Verity has to decide whether she can trust Monk with her whole truth and whether a relationship would be worth the risk. Ryan knows how to put her readers’ emotions through the wringer while staying true to her characters, so the story feels realistic and never manipulative. Every moment of heartbreak rings true. Deliciously sexy scenes are deftly integrated and vital to the characters’ development, and poetic descriptions of yearning are worthy of highlighting. Verity lives at the intersection of Black, bisexual, and bipolar, and Ryan never underplays resulting hardships while also celebrating and affirming these identities. She shows that Verity deserves, and is capable of having, a serious, passionate, committed love.
Incredibly romantic and deeply human.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781538769652
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.
A heartbroken man lusts after his therapist while seeking revenge on a drug kingpin and his enforcer.
Mitch Haskell’s wife, Angela, died two years ago of an apparent suicide, but Mitch has always believed the scene was staged. Certainly, she would never have willingly left their young son, Andrew, behind. Consumed with a thirst for vengeance, Mitch—a former Marine and undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and currently a police detective—is struggling with alcohol dependency and uncontrolled rage. Andrew is living with his in-laws, who are making not-so-subtle suggestions that they might apply for permanent guardianship if Mitch can’t get it together. So his boss and best friend, John Bowie, mandates that he go into therapy, which puts him in the path of sexy Dr. Dylan Reede. Within a few days, Mitch makes a connection between two new murders and the death of his former partner; finds a big clue that points to the truth about Angela’s death; goes undercover as a homeless man; takes on a vicious drug cartel; and obnoxiously bullies Dylan with a charm offensive that leads them inevitably to bed. While Mitch seems to lean into the stereotype of the ex-soldier/cop with deeply buried trauma who believes that the ends justify the means—at least in law enforcement—Dylan offers the strength and sweetness to help him start breaking down his walls, allowing herself to be vulnerable in turn. Is passionate sex enough to ground a relationship and a family for the long term? For these characters, and the breakneck speed of this thriller, it’s as good a foundation as any.
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781538743027
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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