A perfectly escapist rom-com.
A heartbroken video game designer who’s determined to remain single ends up at a tropical resort with a man who might be able to break her resolve.
Sloane Cooper is nursing a broken heart after having been cheated on by the man she thought was the love of her life. She tries to avoid her feelings by focusing on her career—she’s gunning for her dream job at Catapult, a top video game company. At her first interview, the all-male team seems to doubt that she can focus on work instead of her personal life, so she promises she’ll remain single and devote her life to work. That’s no big sacrifice for Sloane—until her neighbor Charlie invites her on a trip to an all-inclusive resort in Turks and Caicos. She barely knows Charlie, but he’s desperate to win back his ex and thinks having a mysterious new girlfriend will make her jealous—especially if said mysterious girlfriend is in all the photos he posts of the trip his ex was supposed to go on with him. Sloane eventually agrees, figuring she can use some distraction-free time in paradise to work on the game design Catapult asked her to submit. What she doesn’t count on is discovering how great Charlie is—he’s supportive, funny, and sexy. But he’s on this trip to get his ex back, and Catapult is counting on her to stay single and deliver her best work. “What happens in Turks and Caicos stays in Turks and Caicos” might wind up being harder for Sloane to stick to than she thought. Tubati Alexander proves herself a master of the slow burn as Sloane and Charlie try to fight the feelings they have for each other. Their chemistry leaps off the page, and the tropical beach setting is delightfully romantic while leading to funny moments like a scavenger hunt with other resort guests. Sloane and Charlie are both well-rounded characters, and watching their relationship slowly build is incredibly fulfilling. But the story is just as much about Sloane’s personal growth, and it’s satisfying to see her fight the sexism in the gaming industry.
A perfectly escapist rom-com.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780063292949
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.
While on her sister’s wedding cruise, a woman enlists her childhood best friend for help as she attempts to woo her longtime crush.
JoJo Burton is bad at love. After she leaves her terrible fiancé, Pearce Richmond, at the altar, she’s convinced she might never settle down. But during her sister’s wedding, which is being held on an eight-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cozumel, she and her family concoct a plan that will help her seduce her recently divorced childhood crush, Finn Turner. The two of them once shared a blindfolded kiss that might have ruined JoJo for all other men, and she’s never forgotten it. But then JoJo’s best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up. Cooper and JoJo were inseparable as children but didn’t talk for years after she got engaged to Pearce. She doesn’t know why he suddenly disappeared on her, but it doesn’t matter—he’s here now, and she needs him to help her get Finn to reenact that long-ago kiss. But after she and Cooper share a cabin, get thrown together for every wedding week activity, and even engage in the classic friendly flirting meant to make another man jealous, JoJo starts to realize that Finn might not be the man she’s been waiting for, after all. Center keeps things light, focusing on humor even when the subject matter veers into family drama. JoJo and Cooper find themselves caught up in the sort of tropes that are catnip for romance fans—he takes care of her when she has a sunburn, for instance, and they participate in a slow-dance contest. As Center reveals in an author’s note at the beginning, “Spoiler: This book will end well.” The destination may not be a surprise, but the journey is a delight.
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781250408051
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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