Numerous subplots overwhelm a romance between friends.
A woman learns the father she never knew needs a kidney transplant.
Alexis Carlisle is settling into a quiet life; a few years earlier, she joined several women to reveal they had been sexually harassed by a celebrity chef. Now she owns a cat cafe in Nashville, but she is also committed to providing a safe space for other sexual assault survivors. Alexis assumes a new customer, a shy young woman named Candi, is looking for support, but it turns out Candi has a personal relationship to disclose. A DNA test for an ancestry website has identified Candi and Alexis as probable siblings. Their father has only a few months to live unless he has a kidney transplant, and Alexis is his last hope for a compatible family match. Alexis approaches her best friend, Noah Logan, for advice, but he fears she is yet again rushing in to save others before thinking about herself. Noah has been hiding his love for her for years out of respect for her traumatic past. His best friend, Mack, and the rest of the men in their book club—introduced in Bromance Book Club (2019) and Undercover Bromance (2020)—encourage Noah to tell Alexis how he feels. Along with the kidney transplant story, the book has other meaty subplots—the men of the Bromance Book Club are planning Mack’s wedding, Alexis’ business is being targeted by a neighboring merchant with a vendetta, and Noah struggles with strife in his own family. The romance is a third-string plot, and though readers will be happy to see Alexis and Noah transition from friends to lovers, the romance is disjointed and unfocused. The large, unwieldy cast of characters exists to create crises for Alexis and Noah to solve or offer advice on how they can get back together.
Numerous subplots overwhelm a romance between friends.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984806-13-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.
In this contemporary romance, two emergency room doctors, both recovering from messy breakups, form a close, comforting friendship and perhaps something more.
Dr. Briana Ortiz has enough on her plate. She’s in the midst of finalizing her divorce, and her brother’s on a deadline to find a kidney donor. Now she has to worry that the new doctor, Jacob Maddox, is there to nab her promotion to chief of emergency medicine. Admittedly, Jacob—who has social anxiety—doesn't make the best first impression on Bri, telling her off for bumping into him in the hall. To make amends, he writes her a letter to explain himself and apologize, and the tension between them softens as their letters to each other keep coming. Bri realizes Jacob isn’t there to undermine her, and Jacob gets to see Bri’s more vulnerable side. When Jacob offers to be Bri’s brother’s kidney donor and Bri agrees to be Jacob’s pretend girlfriend for a wedding, it's easy to wonder what kept these two apart in the first place. The answer: not much. Of course, the two are carrying some heavy baggage from prior relationships, but it seems like a minor obstacle when compared to the genuine connection Jacob and Bri share. This is a cute, slow-burn romance with plenty of funny moments and emotional challenges, though the focus seems to be on the leads finally realizing what’s been in front of them all along through grand and sometimes unnecessary machinations. Did this need a fake dating subplot? Or epistolary flirting? Not really, but Jimenez manages to pepper these adorable tropes throughout without making them feel too gimmicky.
A solid contemporary with a balance of humor and lasting emotional beats.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781538704394
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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