This frothy, made-for-summer read earns its place poolside.
At Little Bridge Island’s first annual literary festival, the attending authors create enough drama to fill several novels.
Jo Wright, author of popular children’s book series Kitty Katz, Kitten Sitter, is not feeling as perfectly “pawsitive” as her plucky feline heroine. She’s been dealing with terrible writer’s block ever since Will Price, author of several supersuccessful maudlin romances, bad-mouthed her books to a reporter from the New York Times. Now prone to wearing all black and embracing a less-than-sunny approach to life, Jo is way behind on her deadline for Kitty Katz No. 27 and in need of funds to move her ailing father out of New York City and to a warmer climate. So, when Jo receives an unexpected invitation—complete with $10,000 stipend—to the Florida Keys for Little Bridge Island’s first literary festival, she can’t really justify turning it down. There’s only one downside: Will Price is not only attending the festival, but he’s also its largest donor. Jo, along with a zany cast including magician/fantasy author Garrett Newcombe and her best friend, YA novelist Bernadette Zhang, are all charmed by the island’s hospitality and the festival’s fancy events. But when Jo and Will’s past animosity seeps into the present and unsavory rumors come to a head, Little Bridge finds itself in the eye of a “purr-fect” storm. This third trip to Little Bridge—following No Judgments (2019) and No Offense (2020)—puts Cabot’s trademark wit and vibrant characters on full display. While some key facets of the plot are underdeveloped—the explanation for Will’s unsavory behavior is unsatisfactory, as is Jo’s extreme reaction to it—the charming small-town setting, intriguing hate-to-love romance, and authentic look behind the scenes of a literary get-together make for a winning combination.
This frothy, made-for-summer read earns its place poolside.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-308225-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
A smart, steamy romance.
Tomforde’s sports romance pairs boardroom power plays with dugout drama.
As the youngest and only female owner of a Major League Baseball team, Reese Remington is used to pressure. Even though Reese is the granddaughter of the Windy City Warriors’ former owner, the men around her still question her position; she’ll “most likely have to work twice as hard and make [the] club’s success twice as noticeable to have any hope of being viewed as the right person to operate this team.” It doesn’t help that the franchise is bleeding money, the result of her grandfather’s hands-off approach in the years before his retirement. Reese must use her razor-sharp intelligence and fierce business sense to not only prove herself in a role in which the public is eager to see her fail, but also to make unpopular financial decisions to get the team out of the red. Enter Emmett Montgomery, a former All-Star turned field manager whose priorities lie firmly with people rather than profit. A man devoted to his team and his adopted child, Emmett has long since closed the door on romance, despite gentle nudging from his loved ones. His empathetic team-first mentality puts him immediately at odds with Reese’s pragmatic agenda, and with his contract up at the end of the year, Emmett worries he’ll be on the chopping block if he speaks out too much. Told from the perspectives of the leads, the novel gives equal page time to Reese and Emmett. Their concerns––the scrutiny Reese must endure as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and Emmett’s worries over his contract renewal––are tangible and add a sense of urgency to their every decision. While the novel includes some unavoidable exposition dumps to orient readers, it more than compensates by establishing clear stakes and a sense of momentum from the outset. The narrative successfully introduces credible barriers to the romance, which largely follows recognizable genre beats. The baseball setting is also used effectively, with the season-long arc mirroring the couple’s romantic and professional journeys.
A smart, steamy romance.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781649379795
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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