This enemies-to-lovers romance has all the winning ingredients: compassion, spice, comedy, books, and more.
A podcast host falls in love with her producer via email, only to discover she knows (and despises) him in real life.
When Yael Koenig started The Sophomore English Agenda podcast under the pseudonym Elle Rex, she never imagined that a show discussing high school reading would get more than a handful of listeners. But practically overnight, her secret podcast amassed a major following, and it’s more than she can handle on top of her day job as a public school librarian in Portland, Oregon. Her roommate, Charlie, and best friend, Sanaa, insist Yael needs help, so she hires a New York–based editor named Kevin Kisson to produce and edit her show. Immediately, the two strike up an email friendship; soon, she can’t get enough of their funny, vulnerable, sometimes flirty banter, which offers her solace amid personal and workplace stress. The latest drama? Yael’s new volunteer for her after-school queer book club is Charlie’s one-night stand, Ravi…whom she caught sneaking out the window post hookup. Little does she know that Ravi the jerk is actually Kevin Ravi Kisson. At book club, Yael and Ravi can barely contain their dislike for one another, but after hours, the tension between them starts to sizzle. Online, Elle and Kevin have decided to keep things professional, even though it’s obvious they like each other, maybe even love. What happens when they find out each other’s real identities? Can the real Yael and Ravi be as open in person, without a screen making hard things easier to say? Katz’s third novel is an expressive, modern take on classic “meet-disasters” like You’ve Got Mail, with characters who are refreshingly communicative and vulnerable. Both leads are queer people of color—Yael is Black and Jewish and Ravi is Trinidadian—and the author artfully explores their complex relationships with family, friends, and partners. Another highlight is Yael’s tongue-in-cheek podcast episode list, which Katz offers a snippet from after the epilogue.
This enemies-to-lovers romance has all the winning ingredients: compassion, spice, comedy, books, and more.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781250369970
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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 cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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