A warm, heartfelt novel that’ll get stuck in your head like your favorite love song.
A small-town gardener with big dreams reunites with her ex-boyfriend, a famous alt-country singer, in this sweet second-chance romance.
Sandy Macintosh imagined hundreds of different scenarios in which she’d run into her ex-boyfriend Hank Tillman, but being covered in dirt in the soda aisle of her local grocery store wasn’t one of them. The last time she’d seen him was eight years ago…with his new wife. Before Hank was a married country-music star, he and Sandy were high school sweethearts, bonding over a desire to venture beyond their small town of Baileyville, Ohio. An aspiring artist, Sandy hoped to follow Hank to college in Massachusetts, until a scholarship mishap forced her to attend a local community college. Fearing that she would hold him back from his big break, Sandy ended things and has stayed in Baileyville ever since: “I’ve been letting my roots grow deeper and deeper here in town, so deep that they’re now all tangled and gnarled far below the surface.” For the past 16 years, Sandy has worked hard to make peace with the life she was given, buying her own greenhouse and developing a knack for gardening. But seeing Hank—who’s now divorced and thinking about moving back home—threatens the fragile surface of her contentment, and when he volunteers to help Sandy raise funds for the Baileyville Street Fair, she can’t help but wonder if she could finally allow herself the happiness she deserves. Winfrey’s romance is sweet as honey, and Sandy’s long-awaited journey to living out her dreams is touching and gratifying. Better yet, Hank is the quintessential kindhearted golden boy: “His eyes showed me everything I loved about Baileyville and everything I dreamed about in the outside world….Those blue-gray irises sparkled with the gently swaying flowers of my present and the skyscrapers of my dreams.” With hilarious best friends like Honey and Shelby and memorable oddities like Hotpants Ed, Sandy and Hank’s quaint country town feels larger than life.
A warm, heartfelt novel that’ll get stuck in your head like your favorite love song.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-33343-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
PERSPECTIVES
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
