A funny, light-hearted romp fueled by miscommunication and subterfuge.
A woman agrees to help her sister land the man of her dreams—only to fall for him herself.
When Vanessa Cordero was in college, she had a lucrative gig working as a “starter ex”—women would hire her to date their crushes, but she'd make the guy so miserable that he’d turn back to the first woman, who was waiting in the wings to "save" him. Now she’s returned to New York after having spent eight years as a financial planner in Chicago, hoping to convince her overworked parents to sell their Harlem bodega and retire. Her sister, Lisa, who’s been holding down the fort at home, resents her sudden reappearance and, to make up for it, wants her to bring her “starter ex” persona out of retirement to help her land Jason Torres. Vanessa has serious misgivings, but she’s willing to do anything to repair her relationship with her sister. Meanwhile, Jason is dealing with the weight of his family’s expectations. The Torres clan is gearing up for younger daughter Cami’s wedding, and Jason’s mother is pressuring him to settle down. Jason has been burned by previous lovers, and he refuses to make the same mistake again, no matter how much he and Vanessa seem to have in common. He’s hurt and angry when he discovers her deception, but realizes he can keep his family at bay by continuing to date Vanessa no matter how hard she tries to shake him. Sosa’s plotting is successfully zany, with Vanessa’s schemes becoming more desperate and outrageous. Vanessa and Jason are deeply sympathetic characters caught in a trap of their own making, but readers might tire of their lies and wonder what it will take for them to admit they’re falling in love.
A funny, light-hearted romp fueled by miscommunication and subterfuge.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9798217044320
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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