Pure wish fulfillment for readers seeking steamy escapism.
Forbidden love cures all in Gray’s latest, following Come Back to Me (2015).
Didi Monroe is on her way to happily-ever-after. The white doctoral student is on track for her Ph.D. in psychology, is being wooed by a hot movie star, and is interning at a hospital for wounded soldiers. Then Didi meets Lt. Noel Walker, an angry, injured Marine, one of two survivors of an ambush in the most dangerous territory in Afghanistan. Walker suffers from PTSD, survivor’s guilt, a broken knee, and a case of psychosomatic blindness. When the two meet, professional and personal boundaries blur, and as their attraction grows, they struggle to suppress their feelings in every erotically charged encounter. The will-they–won’t-they–of-course-they-will plot keeps the tension high. Gray makes it easy for Didi, giving Walker only a wounded leg and temporary blindness rather than a missing limb or limbs like many of the other soldiers in the hospital. Didi and Walker appear to be white in the cover smooch; characters of color include physiotherapist José; wounded soldier Jésus Sanchez, the only other surviving member of Walker’s unit; Sanchez’s wife (who slaps him way too much); and her cousin, a disturbingly overbearing Latina in a kaftan who sets her sights on any soldier with a heartbeat and is the butt of jokes because she doesn’t meet the dominant beauty ideal.
Pure wish fulfillment for readers seeking steamy escapism. (Fiction. 16 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8847-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Melodramatic, without redeeming character development.
Following the events of the series opener, 18-year-old Kamila Hamilton continues to try to reconcile her relationships with two brothers.
Kami’s family is struggling financially and her parents have decided to divorce. Kami blames her mother for the split, adding to the strain between them. Making matters worse, Kami is blamed for acts of vandalism and hateful Instagram comments directed against her classmates, isolating her from friends. She finds comfort in her romantic relationship with Taylor Di Bianco and friendship with Julian, a gay boy who continues to stick by her. But Kami still can’t shake her attraction to Taylor’s older brother, Thiago, who broke things off with her. He’s now working as a PE teacher at the nearby elementary school. Struggling to navigate their history and proximity, Kami and Thiago attempt to project an appearance of just being friends for Taylor’s sake while still secretly feeling anguish and lusting after each other. After the trio agrees to unearth a time capsule they buried eight years ago, the letters from their past selves trigger events that change everything. Continuing in the same vein as the earlier entry, this uncredited translation of a work by Argentinian author Ron, which was originally self-published in 2020, centers on explorations of indecision and guilt. The mystery surrounding who’s framing Kami brings some depth to the story, but the pedestrian writing and shallowly drawn characters undermine engagement. The central characters read white.
Melodramatic, without redeeming character development. (content warning) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464234309
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
