A sexy and often compelling love story despite a few flaws.
A woman starts over after the end of her marriage in Gabriel’s debut contemporary romance novel.
Gabby Stevens’ divorce has just become final. As part of her plan to move on, she decides to study creative writing. On the way to her first class, she collides with a handsome man who turns out to be her teacher, Colt James. They begin to develop a friendship, and he helps her get a much-needed job at a bookstore. She credits him with bringing light back into her life, and the sexual tension between them is intense, although she’s unsure about where he stands until he kisses her. Gabby’s head over heels, but Colt’s best friend, Tina, warns her not to “take things too seriously”—and, specifically, not to fall in love with him—and Gabby’s best friend, Felicity, is concerned about how fast things are going. Gabby keeps seeing him, and as they grow closer, he confesses that he’s dealing with past trauma and that he’s not sure how to be a good partner. Still, when he finally declares his love for her, it feels like a dream—until he suddenly leaves town without a word. Will Gabby have to learn to cope with another heartbreak? Another major element is the fact that Gabby, her ex-husband, and Felicity have been close friends for 20 years, and Gabby’s navigating these relationships post-divorce adds a nice layer of complexity to the story, effectively showing how hard it is to make a clean break with the past. A few minor issues keep the novel from complete success, though; a few details regarding Gabby’s financial situation and Felicity’s job as writer for the New York Times don’t quite ring true, and Gabby must constantly reassure Felicity that they’re still friends, which becomes tedious. Colt’s tendency toward the dramatic almost makes him seem like he’s in a different novel from the rest of the low-key characters at times. Still, the author’s narrative voice is engaging, and readers will root for Gabby and Colt to find happiness.
A sexy and often compelling love story despite a few flaws.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-64-742203-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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
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