A fun and sexy romance that’s perfect for anyone who loves classic cinema.
A notorious Old Hollywood rogue must fake-date his new co-star to clean up his image—and perhaps change his womanizing ways in the process.
Flynn Banks doesn’t make any promises—every woman who dates him knows they’re getting a fun time, but not a long time. But this is 1938 Hollywood, and Flynn’s reputation has led to negative attention. The men at the Legion of Decency and the Hays Code office want Flynn to clean up his act if they’re going to approve his films, and his studio insists that means committing to one woman, his newcomer co-star, Liv De Lesseps—at least for a staged relationship. The only problem is that he’s already met Liv (real name Olivia Blount) and she’s not too fond of him. What Flynn doesn’t know is that Olivia nursed a huge crush on him when she was just a girl watching his swashbuckling pirate movies. She’d feel lucky to be paired up with the man of her Hollywood dreams if it weren’t for the fact that she now knows he’s a scoundrel with “an ego the size of the Empire State Building.” As Flynn and Olivia are photographed together at hot spots around town, though, their love affair starts to feel a lot less fake. Olivia realizes that Flynn is much more sensitive and sincere behind the scenes, and Flynn finds Olivia irresistible. She just might be the one to get him to settle down for good—if they can find their way around the myriad obstacles Hollywood and their own pasts put in their way. Lenker creates a world with all the glamour of the silver screen and the banter of a screwball comedy. Flynn and Olivia have sparkling chemistry that leads to a few steamy scenes that certainly wouldn’t fly with the Legion of Decency. Their love story features lots of period details and Easter eggs for film lovers—for example, Flynn takes his name from stars Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks. Lenker also examines the darker side of Hollywood with a subplot involving Olivia’s sister and the dangerous situation she finds herself in while trying to become a dancer.
A fun and sexy romance that’s perfect for anyone who loves classic cinema.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781728267944
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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 fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.
While on her sister’s wedding cruise, a woman enlists her childhood best friend for help as she attempts to woo her longtime crush.
JoJo Burton is bad at love. After she leaves her terrible fiancé, Pearce Richmond, at the altar, she’s convinced she might never settle down. But during her sister’s wedding, which is being held on an eight-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cozumel, she and her family concoct a plan that will help her seduce her recently divorced childhood crush, Finn Turner. The two of them once shared a blindfolded kiss that might have ruined JoJo for all other men, and she’s never forgotten it. But then JoJo’s best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up. Cooper and JoJo were inseparable as children but didn’t talk for years after she got engaged to Pearce. She doesn’t know why he suddenly disappeared on her, but it doesn’t matter—he’s here now, and she needs him to help her get Finn to reenact that long-ago kiss. But after she and Cooper share a cabin, get thrown together for every wedding week activity, and even engage in the classic friendly flirting meant to make another man jealous, JoJo starts to realize that Finn might not be the man she’s been waiting for, after all. Center keeps things light, focusing on humor even when the subject matter veers into family drama. JoJo and Cooper find themselves caught up in the sort of tropes that are catnip for romance fans—he takes care of her when she has a sunburn, for instance, and they participate in a slow-dance contest. As Center reveals in an author’s note at the beginning, “Spoiler: This book will end well.” The destination may not be a surprise, but the journey is a delight.
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781250408051
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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