An altogether charming and delightful romance full of laugh-out-loud lines.
A podcaster hosts a show about her own dating life—but falls for someone off-limits.
Cecily Foster cares deeply about her job at the podcast company Palmetto Media. She’s mostly behind-the-scenes there, using her perfectionist tendencies to make everyone else sound better—but what she really wants is her own show. When she gets the chance, though, it’s not exactly what she’s always dreamed of. Cecily has to go out with 20 men chosen for her by influencer/relationship coach Eliza Cassidy and document her experience as she (hopefully) finds love. Cecily long ago lost interest in dating when her fellow-podcaster boyfriend stole her idea for a show, and letting listeners in on her dating exploits seems humiliating. But Palmetto needs a hit and Cecily wants leverage, so she agrees on the condition that she gets to have her best friend, Julie, as producer. Cecily promises to give Eliza’s method the old college try, going out on dates with 20 different men with varying degrees of success. The one man Cecily is actually attracted to, though, is Will, a guy she meets when she helps him rescue a runaway Great Dane on the sidewalk. As a laid-back waiter and photographer, he certainly doesn’t fit in among the career-driven doctors and businessmen Eliza suggests. He keeps showing up in her life, though, being both charming and cute, and she finds herself wondering if she can trust her own instincts. Should she stick to Eliza’s plan, protecting her job in the process? Or should she do something far riskier and follow her heart? Holmes clearly knows a thing or two about the world of podcasting, as she’s one of the hosts of the popular NPR show Pop Culture Happy Hour, and she fills the book with details that give listeners a peek behind the curtain (for example, hosts should avoid drinking Mountain Dew because it “makes you sound like your mouth is sticking to itself”). Cecily is a winning character—her burgeoning relationship with Will manages to be both realistic and sexy, and her personal growth as she learns to value her own opinion is a joy to read. Holmes also showcases her fine ear for dialogue with crackling banter and plenty of snappy retorts.
An altogether charming and delightful romance full of laugh-out-loud lines.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593599259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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