An upbeat but uneven romance with a Christian twist.
This debut novel weaves the story of a dramatic romance that spans decades and culminates in faith.
Michelle Mertz fell in love with her high school teacher Mr. Fox immediately on meeting him. Now 32 years old and a novelist, she still fans that old flame, knowing that no man she ever dates can quite live up to the promise of her fantasy. When she finds out his wife is out of the picture, she feels as though she finally has a shot at the love she’s been harboring since she was a teenager. It turns out Mr. Fox, who asks Michelle to call him Jesse now that they’re both adults, has also been in love with her ever since she was a student. The two start a romance, but it is continually interrupted by mutual jealousy and fear, compounded by Jesse’s secretive nature. Alongside their romantic dabblings, Michelle’s second novel is slowly making its way to bestseller status, and she has high hopes of it being turned into a movie. Eventually, Jesse finds himself becoming more faith-oriented after watching a television preacher. His renewed Christianity helps him to fully become the man of Michelle’s dreams, and she delights in his devotion as well as in her newfound fame as a bestselling author. Heart’s novel deftly utilizes many of the dramatic trappings of romance fiction. But some readers will find the creepy affection that Jesse has for his former student off-putting, especially when they learn that he first fell in love with her after seeing her in a bikini as a teenager. The author’s prose is also sometimes confusing, with tenses changing in mid-sentence. And the addition of devout Christianity feels incidental, especially in a romance that comes across as breezy.
An upbeat but uneven romance with a Christian twist.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5320-4462-5
Page Count: 162
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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