Compelling, evenly paced, and delightfully fun.
When her sister is accused of committing murder, Poppy Delamare returns home to uncover the truth and winds up in a fake betrothal to a duke.
Since she fled home two years ago so her stepfather couldn’t force her into a marriage with his private secretary, Lovell, Poppy has lived in London under the identity Flora Deaver. But when she discovers her younger sister married Lovell and is now blamed for his murder, Poppy doesn’t believe it and sets out to uncover what really happened. Joshua Fielding, the Duke of Langham, is taking a train in the same direction for his grandmother’s birthday party. He wants to help Poppy, so the pair make a pact: They’ll pretend to be betrothed so she’ll have more resources to help her sister and he won’t have to deal with Grandmama’s matchmaking attempts. At first, Poppy thinks Langham is arrogant and entitled, but her feelings change as she gets to know him. As they try to decide what to do about the very real chemistry developing between them, the case becomes bigger, twistier, and more dangerous. Like the previous titles in the series, this third installment mixes romance, murder mystery, and feminist sensibilities. The romance here is a simple slow burn that pairs well with the increasingly complex mystery providing most of the tension, and each arc has a satisfying, well-earned conclusion. The story bucks gender stereotypes with not just the obviously intelligent, fierce heroine, but more notably with a hero who’s learning to be vulnerable and imperfect.
Compelling, evenly paced, and delightfully fun.Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781538725597
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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.
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