An engaging and sweet-natured love story featuring an unlikely couple.
A chauffeur and an heiress forge an unexpected connection in this May-December romance.
Life is uncomplicated for Neil Vincent, a chauffeur for the St. James family at its estate, Westfield Court. At the age of 38, the confirmed bachelor and war veteran is content with his room above the garage at Westfield Court, where he keeps his collection of books and pursues a relationship with a maid named Jane. Neil’s orderly life changes in March 1963 with the arrival of 18-year-old Mary Claire St. James DeWinter, a student at Radcliffe returning for a final visit with her dying grandfather Austin St. James. Mary Claire’s life is touched by tragedy. When she was 11 years old, the girl and her brother, Michael, were involved in a car accident that left her blind and her face scarred. A friendship develops between Neil and Mary Claire, who share a love of reading and discussions about philosophy and religion. After Austin dies, the reading of his will reveals a major surprise. Mary Claire will inherit Westfield Court, but she must marry within one year of Austin’s death. If she fails to meet this stipulation, then the state of Massachusetts will receive the estate. Despite the economic security promised by the inheritance, Mary Claire is uncertain she wants to marry. Neil offers to wed the reluctant heiress and have a platonic marriage of convenience. She agrees, but when the friendship turns to romance, Neil wonders if their marriage will survive its unconventional beginnings. Griffin’s novel is a tender and nuanced story of love blossoming in the most unexpected of places. Neil and Mary Claire are appealing protagonists whose rapport is bolstered by their robust discussions of literature and religion. Despite the 20-year age difference between the two leads, the author establishes their relationship as an equal partnership. The strong supporting cast of characters includes Jane, whose casual attitude toward her relationship with Neil masks hidden jealousy. That said, the book is a slender 116 pages, and the pacing is so quick that the ending feels rushed.
An engaging and sweet-natured love story featuring an unlikely couple.Pub Date: April 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5092-4181-1
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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