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 wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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