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
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning.
A romantically entangled stepbrother and stepsister in Los Angeles navigate their tumultuous history and take their relationship to new levels in this translated title by an Argentinian author.
Nick and Noah are madly in love: Their mutual attraction is established as the book opens with Noah’s 18th birthday party, during which she and Nick have an explicitly described sexual encounter behind the pool house. This fiery scene sets the stage for twists and turns in the lovers’ journey, including a separation when Noah is forced to go on a monthlong mother-daughter European tour. But reminders of their pasts (chronicled in the 2023 series opener, My Fault) threaten to undermine their stability. Nick’s wealthy estranged mother makes an unfortunate appearance, while Noah is haunted by the trauma of her father’s violent death. The blend of everyday complications (jealousy, parental disapproval) with frothy visions of high-society life is at once lacking in subtlety and intimately irresistible. The series initially gained popularity on Wattpad, and the novel follows the episodic structure typical of works on that site; sensual encounters occur at reliable intervals. Still, the characters and their milieu feel formulaic, and the writing is stilted. The differences between the two—Nick is five years older and has an office job; Noah has just finished high school—makes their suffocatingly possessive relationship feel particularly squirm-worthy. Nick and Noah and their families read white.
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning. (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728290768
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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