An enjoyable Victorian romance threaded with mystery.
A mathematical genius and a casino owner gamble on each other.
Jasper Jones isn’t quite sure about the spinster in oversized spectacles sent over by Perdita’s Governess Agency, but he’ll have to make do with her for now. As the owner of Rockford’s, London’s most infamous gaming hell, he was busy even before becoming the guardian of his teenage niece, Cecelia, and he needs the help. But Miss Francis “Frankie” Turner isn’t actually there to be a governess; though Perdita’s is a legitimate agency, she’s arrived at Jasper’s house to fulfill its other mission, which is to spy on wrongdoers of the ton. If it was up to her, she’d devote all her time to solving complicated math problems, but after her sister goes missing, she agrees to look into Jasper, as it seems that whatever happened to her sister is related to a larger conspiracy based at Rockford’s. It doesn’t take long for Jasper to realize something is unusual, and oddly desirable, about Frankie—his first hint is when it appears that she’s taught Cecelia how to count cards while playing Vingt et Un. But rather than banish Frankie when he learns about her mission (and her extraordinary mathematical ability), he decides to support her, and both eagerly agree to work together, not realizing they’re gambling their hearts in the process. Lovise’s second Secret Society of Governess Spies book expands the world introduced in Never Blow a Kiss (2024), and builds on its strengths. Because Jasper and Frankie begin working together fairly early, their closeness develops quickly, so the suspense comes from other parts of the plot. Though the criminal shenanigans and their resolution require an extraordinary suspension of disbelief, the misogynist viewpoint behind the nefariousness does not, so readers will likely be willing to overlook the contemporary feeling of this historical romance. Thanks to the chemistry between the well-written, neurodiverse bluestocking heroine and her fake rake, fans of the first book will find much to enjoy, and this one stands alone well enough to attract new readers as well.
An enjoyable Victorian romance threaded with mystery.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538740552
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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
Rowell delivers the requisite happily-ever-after, but it doesn’t quite satisfy.
A second-chance romance from the author of Slow Dance (2024) and the Simon Snow Trilogy.
Cherry is fat. There are other things to know about Cherry, but this fact is essential to how she sees herself and—she knows—essential to how other people see her. And now that her husband’s hugely popular webcomic is a movie, she not only has to endure people confusing her with the character that’s based on her, but also the knowledge that the actor playing this character is wearing a fat suit. This pain is exacerbated by the fact that her marriage is over. It’s at this rock-bottom moment that her college crush reenters her life…This is a book about being fat, and Rowell does a great job of depicting what internalized fatphobia looks like. “Cherry was so used to thinking about being fat, she hardly even noticed that she was doing it. She was so used to thinking about being fat, she never thought about it.” Observations like this will resonate with a lot of readers, as will Cherry’s complicated feelings about weight-loss drugs. This is also a romance and, as a romance, it’s kind of all over the place. It’s totally realistic for Cherry to wonder if Russ—the guy from college—never pursued her because of her weight. This is a conflict that feels true. What’s less believable is the way he reacts when he sees a trailer for Cherry’s husband’s movie. It’s clear that he didn’t get that this movie was going to be a blockbuster. In short, Russ freaks out, and it’s not at all clear why. As for Cherry’s husband, the way she feels about him at the beginning of the book is totally disconnected from the way she feels about him in the novel’s latter half. It’s normal to have complicated feelings about the end of a marriage, of course, but there’s no emotional throughline to help the reader understand why Cherry’s feelings change so dramatically.
Rowell delivers the requisite happily-ever-after, but it doesn’t quite satisfy.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780063380264
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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