Delightful, pure escapism in a fairy-tale romance.
Two star-crossed lovers cross paths more than once.
Ellie, from London, and Ash, from North Wales, meet in Lisbon when they’re both traveling after college graduation. They instantly bond, especially over the fact that they’re both traveling alone because their best friends have died. They spend an enchanting three days that feels like the start of something big and make plans to meet up again in Madrid in a week’s time. Ellie heads to the Algarve to meet her parents. On the specified date, Ellie shows up but Ash doesn’t. In the heady days of their burgeoning romance, they forgot to trade last names even as they shared their most heartfelt dreams: Ellie to be a gardener rather than a designer in her family’s furniture business, and Ash to study space. Years pass. Neither is able to find the other again, despite much searching on both their parts. In that time, Ellie becomes the gardener she dreamed of being, and while Ash still loves the stars, he isn’t able to pursue the graduate work he had planned. When Ellie lands a coveted spot on the gardening staff of a 500-year-old private estate, she is floored to discover that Ash, her long-lost and long-sought Ash, is actually Ashton Berkeley—destined to become viscount when he inherits the estate, and dating a woman named Rebecca. He’s as shocked as she is to find her once again. This is a charming, beguiling tale: There’s tension between the two characters, their families, their expectations about their own futures and any potential future they might have together. There is chemistry. There are misunderstandings and there are solid conversations. There are dreams and love and nature and the stars.
Delightful, pure escapism in a fairy-tale romance.Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718735
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.
A heartbroken man lusts after his therapist while seeking revenge on a drug kingpin and his enforcer.
Mitch Haskell’s wife, Angela, died two years ago of an apparent suicide, but Mitch has always believed the scene was staged. Certainly, she would never have willingly left their young son, Andrew, behind. Consumed with a thirst for vengeance, Mitch—a former Marine and undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and currently a police detective—is struggling with alcohol dependency and uncontrolled rage. Andrew is living with his in-laws, who are making not-so-subtle suggestions that they might apply for permanent guardianship if Mitch can’t get it together. So his boss and best friend, John Bowie, mandates that he go into therapy, which puts him in the path of sexy Dr. Dylan Reede. Within a few days, Mitch makes a connection between two new murders and the death of his former partner; finds a big clue that points to the truth about Angela’s death; goes undercover as a homeless man; takes on a vicious drug cartel; and obnoxiously bullies Dylan with a charm offensive that leads them inevitably to bed. While Mitch seems to lean into the stereotype of the ex-soldier/cop with deeply buried trauma who believes that the ends justify the means—at least in law enforcement—Dylan offers the strength and sweetness to help him start breaking down his walls, allowing herself to be vulnerable in turn. Is passionate sex enough to ground a relationship and a family for the long term? For these characters, and the breakneck speed of this thriller, it’s as good a foundation as any.
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781538743027
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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