A fairly conventional new-adult romance perhaps best suited for die-hard fans.
After a traumatic event cleaves their bond in their early teens, two friends reunite in their early 20s.
Jake and Emerson were childhood BFFs who shared a love of hockey. When Emerson is assaulted in the locker room at age 13, she never plays again. Soon after, Jake suddenly leaves their small town. Seven years later, with a professional hockey contract and unresolved feelings for Em, Jake returns to win her back. Can Em forgive the past and let Jake back into her heart? The story is told in alternating chapters from Jake’s and Emerson’s viewpoints, also switching from the past and present, but their voices sound entirely too similar for the technique to work. True to genre, Jake, with his rugged, athletic looks and determined spirit, is a typical alpha-male archetype who, despite his own melodramas, is able to repeatedly save the day for Emerson. Gray’s secondary characters lack any real development, instead relying on unfortunate stereotypes for plot propulsion. Likewise, the narrative demands that its readers suspend disbelief when it depends on nearly inconceivable and all-too-convenient leaps. However, those willing to overlook the more preposterous plot points should delight in Jake and Em’s building romantic tension and sizzling sex scenes. Those seeking diversity in their romance may want to skip this; Gray’s offering focuses on two white, hetero, cisgender main characters.
A fairly conventional new-adult romance perhaps best suited for die-hard fans. (Romance. 16-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9096-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Unexamined toxic masculinity makes this romance anything but.
A girl’s strained relationships with two brothers causes strife in this trilogy opener by Argentinian author Ron that’s translated from Spanish.
In the small American town of Carsville, Kamila Hamilton was friends with her neighbors the Di Bianco brothers. Taylor was Kami’s constant, kind companion; older brother Thiago grew increasingly antagonistic. When she was 10 and a half and he was 12, Thiago coerced Kami into her first kiss. Following the revelation of a family secret, the Di Biancos moved away, but a restraining order against Thiago led them to return to their old home after eight years without contact. But 20-year-old Thiago’s new job as assistant basketball coach at the high school where Taylor is on the team and 17-year-old Kami is a cheerleader brings the white-presenting trio into close contact, leading to tense confrontations over past events. Thiago and Kami’s interactions are marked by antagonism and lust (Thiago: “Accumulated rage, bitterness, hatred, and arousal….I could have taken her then and there, not even thinking of the consequences”; Kami: “I felt like a small, defenseless animal being hunted by a beast”). The softer and more empathetic Taylor tries to smooth things over. Thiago’s abuse of power—he uses his role as coach to confront and bully Kami—is uncomfortable and feels like a misguided attempt by the pair to process their traumatic history, which Ron purposefully reveals, making this overall read more cringeworthy than romantic.
Unexamined toxic masculinity makes this romance anything but. (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781464234279
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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