A winning, bittersweet love story that has just as much hope as it does heartbreak.
Two people who recently lost their spouses bond through the magic of holiday movies.
Grace White’s husband, Tim, died of cancer, leaving her with a bar to run and two young children to raise. One thing she’s not interested in—finding a new guy. Everyone in her life, however, wants to set her up with every eligible man they know. Henry Adler’s wife, Brynn, died in a plane crash and he’s been sleepwalking through life ever since—avoiding the house where they lived and taking a forced “vacation” from his advertising job. But when their meddling mothers push the two of them together, they realize that maybe they can be partners in sadness—as Grace puts it, “We’re the only people who know what it’s like to be us.” After Henry tells Grace that he and Brynn always had a holiday movie marathon, one thing leads to another and soon Grace and Henry are watching The Family Stone together. They make their way through many of the classics, occasionally with Grace’s kids, as they slowly rebuild their lives and face their grief. But as they begin to rely more on each other, they have to ask themselves if they’re ready for second chances. Norman balances sadness with hope to create a lovely romance that feels like it could fit into the best sort of holiday film. It’s impossible not to root for Grace and Henry, two immensely likable characters who deserve to find happiness. The Baltimore setting comes alive and the vibrant supporting characters make this one a joy to read.
A winning, bittersweet love story that has just as much hope as it does heartbreak.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593975053
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
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