Provides all the genre pleasures that romance fans demand with some fantasy flair.
This first installment of a romance series introduces an angelic, otherworldly hero.
Desperate to escape a life bound to a man she doesn’t want, Trinity travels through a portal from her world to Earth. Temporarily blind, almost naked, and with no memory of who she is or where she’s from, she lands in the middle of a street in a Minnesota town. The stranger who rescues her turns out to be a young artist named Jayden. After bringing Trinity to the studio that also serves as his apartment, he does his best to care for this young woman, who is as much a mystery to herself as she is to him—and she’s quite a mystery. Cars, cellphones, french fries, almost everything, it seems, is new to her (“This thing Jayden called a shower was the most amazing contraption ever”). She wears a gold bracelet that she cannot explain. She burns her hand because she doesn’t know that she shouldn’t touch a hot saucepan, but her blisters heal almost instantly. She speaks English, but she doesn’t understand slang or metaphorical speech—nor does she know the meaning of the word girlfriend. She does know that Jayden makes her feel things she’s never experienced before. And when she finally kisses him, wings unfurl from her shoulder blades. Jayden feels the same intense connection that Trinity does, and only a moment passes before his shock turns into delight. They will learn more about who Trinity is and where she’s from, but this knowledge will only come as danger gets closer to her. It appears that the would-be mate she fled wants her back—and that she’s not the only person from her world to travel to Earth. The resulting drama is fast-paced and enjoyable, and the ending is emotionally satisfying. But there are a few weak points in Rush’s vibrant story. Jayden has a girlfriend who is cartoonishly nasty and inconsistently portrayed. She is fiercely jealous and determined to hang onto her man but also easily dispatched. And there doesn’t seem to be any logic to which earthly phenomena are familiar to Trinity and which aren’t. For example, she’s never seen a refrigerator before, but she knows what to do with a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Provides all the genre pleasures that romance fans demand with some fantasy flair.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 230
Publisher: FHL Press
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This slightly smutty monster romance feels more like a spectacle than a deliberately paced story.
A woman travels to Scotland to unravel her late father’s past and meets a grumpy Scotsman with his own secrets.
Keyanna MacKay was brought up by a single father who was always tight-lipped about his upbringing, so when he dies, she’s left with no family. Key decides that learning about his life before he left Scotland would be a good way of keeping his memory close and perhaps connecting with long-lost relatives. She discovers a grandmother and other extended family in Scotland, but they’re hardly welcoming. “I know who you are....And you shouldn’t have come,” are the first words her grandmother says to her. Lachlan Greer has little patience for the American he’s already written off as clueless. When he witnesses Key’s snubbing by her family members, his grumpy demeanor gives way to begrudging pity, and he starts helping her navigate the local community and try to build a bridge to her grandmother. At first, this book seems to be a contemporary romance with light magical undertones involving a family’s mysterious curse, but it quickly devolves into a monster romance heavy on shock value. While monster romance can be fun, it doesn’t work here. Key and Lachlan’s chemistry is bumpy, and the pace of their relationship as they go from disastrous first impressions to a happily ever after is all over the place. Ferguson tries to combine too many elements—including a grumpy-meets-sunshine pairing, a mystery with sensitive family dynamics, and the complicated logistics of falling in love with a cryptid—leaving several threads not fully resolved. The setting is the most positive element, with Scotland’s lush greenery providing the perfect whimsical background for hunting down long-buried family secrets.
This slightly smutty monster romance feels more like a spectacle than a deliberately paced story.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593816851
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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