A brisk and boldly provocative romance rooted in the hard lessons learned in life and love.
A disenchanted wife sets sail across the Atlantic for a new life in Bouzaid’s romance novel.
The author chronicles the adventurous life of Sophia Lawrence, who falls into a spontaneous marriage with Edward Lawrence, a wealthy Boston attorney, in 1985. Though handsome and descended from a long line of British aristocrats, Edward is “boorish” even while introducing her to all the affluent perks of his illustrious pedigree: dual New England homes, a yacht, society soirees, and “an enviable position in society.” But after a restless decade of serving as Edward’s glorified “adornment” and tolerating his insolence and extramarital dalliances, Sophia abandons the marriage and flees across the Atlantic Ocean by sailboat. After nearly a month, she and her crew arrive in Ireland only to receive the tragic news that Edward had perished in an automobile accident back home. She returns to America to fight a hostile battle with Henry, Edward’s twin brother, over the dead man’s estate. She then travels to London, where she’s swept off her feet by Prince Abdullah bin Abbas of Arabia, who adorns her with lavish gifts and a proposal. An opulent life follows for the newly crowned Princess Sophia, but the culture shock of the Arabian desert makes her fully aware of how reckless her impulsive decisions really are. The author embellishes each of her characters with creatively drawn personalities and authentically regal qualities that will entice readers, particularly romance fans, into following their glamorous exploits. The frothy melodrama comes packed with plenty of sizzling seductions (“Her eyes followed his chest downward, taking in his well-muscled torso, his lean abs, and the cut of his V, down to the proof of his desire for her”) and unexpected plot twists. Despite the frenetic busyness of the novel, Bouzaid retains a firm control over all the action, keeping her protagonist scrupulously in character throughout. This is an auspicious debut for an author who displays a clear talent for romantic intrigue, complex characterizations, and turbulent emotional turmoil.
A brisk and boldly provocative romance rooted in the hard lessons learned in life and love.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781665579971
Page Count: 322
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
