An uplifting, if overly sweet, story about the healing power of love.
In Leavy’s romance, a new couple must confront past traumas without destroying their fledgling relationship.
The book opens as 38-year-old Tess Lee meets Jack Miller for the first time while enjoying a drink alone at a bar. Their connection is instant and intense. After leaving the bar together they quickly become inseparable, and before long they’re professing their love to each other and sharing deep secrets. Tess reveals on their first night together that she was the victim of physical and emotional abuse as a child. Jack, in turn, tells Tess about the horrors he witnessed in his government positions fighting terrorism. They quickly introduce each other to the important people in their lives (“Do you think it will seem strange to our friends, how deeply we feel about each other after such a short time?”), which is when Jack learns that Tess, rather than being just another run-of-the-mill writer (as she’d implied), is actually an incredibly well-known and bestselling author. Seeing the opulence in which she lives, he’s floored, and worries that he might not be enough for her. Though Tess is able to quell his concerns, she soon suffers a traumatic experience and retreats into herself in a way that makes her doubt she can ever be sufficiently whole enough to meet the needs of her new love. While the novel moves surprisingly quickly at the beginning, with the characters sharing personal secrets and profound declarations when they are little more than strangers, the jarring pace does even out before the book’s halfway point. The narrative would have benefited from additional setting details to help ground readers and counterbalance the preponderance of dialogue. While the story flirts with the idea of Tess suffering from disordered eating as a result of her difficult past, the issue is portrayed inconsistently and is never resolved. Even so, there is an alluring hopefulness to the work as the author portrays the characters exploring each other and themselves as they struggle to recover from difficult pasts. Beyond the romantic themes, the narrative does manage to tackle several other difficult issues with grace, ranging from grief and self-doubt to self-love and second chances.
An uplifting, if overly sweet, story about the healing power of love.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781647428549
Page Count: 224
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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
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